For now, check out the Digital Natives project out of Harvard. They pretty much have everything you are talking about in terms of generational communication on-line.

http://www.digitalnative.org

I found it amusing that you explained what leet speak is in your entry. Though, I can certainly understand the necessity to elucidate the definition. Many people have never heard the term.

My first encounter with anything like it was back in the early 90’s. I was getting connected with the deaf community at the time and making friends who are deaf and/or hard of hearing. My parents got me a TDD (telecommunication device for the deaf – commonly referred to as a TTY in the deaf community) so I could make phone calls to my deaf and HoH friends. I had to learn certain acronyms so I could effectively communicate via TTY. It was difficult for me to type ‘OIC’ instead of ‘oh I see’ or ‘PLS’ instead of ‘please’. Here is a partial list of some of the other acronyms used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_devices_for_the_deaf#Etiquette. (Does your blog allow html in the comments? I’d add a tag to that site if it does…).

Later, when I was using the internet more frequently, familiarizing myself with the concept of IM chats, and relying on the internet as a source of information and social connecting, I heard about the leet speak and it reminded me of the good old days with the TTY.

There’s a controversy within deaf culture arguing whether basic English skills should be given more attention in schools for the deaf. Due to the nature of ASL, many deaf students don’t understand sentence structure, grammar, and other basic writing skills as easily as students with English as a first language. Sometimes I feel like this controversy is spilling over into mainstream schools. With the rise of leet speak and internet communication, younger kids are lacking in vocabulary, spelling, and basic grammar skills.

What I find interesting is the perceptible generational differences which are brought to light when it comes to the use of technology.

Our parents and grandparents, of course, adhere to different social mores than we do. Some of them don’t know how to send a text message. Some of them do. For awhile, many of them were scared or frustrated by the internet. They resisted change. Today, a good chunk of them are at least tech savvy enough to send an email or look up a website, but heaven forbid they pay their bills online or start a blog. What kind of ridiculousness is that? Why read the news online when it’s right there on the TV at 3:00pm every day?

People our age – Generation X and Y – have been directly involved in the ever-changing age of technology. Many of us can remember when floppy disks were actually floppy. We learned how to use computers in school. We saw the panic surrounding the Y2K hype. Much like our parents who can recall watching TV for the first time, we remember the first computer in our household, which we used before dial-up was even an option. We saw this kind of technology evolve, and grew up watching the rise of mass communication, the Internet, and other tools. In other words, we knew life before personal computers became mainstream, but we also grew up in the Information Age of technology.

In the present, people in Generation Z are being born into this world of technology. Children as young as 2 and 3 are learning how to play computer games. They are seemingly born with cell phone in hand. The older kids of Gen Y and Gen Z are sending text messages during their high school classes, checking their MySpace pages every 10 seconds, and using the web to complete homework assignments. They can’t even fathom life without a computer or MP3 player.

From a Career Counseling perspective, this is very interesting. The workforce is very diverse – race, gender, ethnicity, cultural, and cross-generational differences. Sometimes generations end up vying against each other in the workplace. How does a supervisor effectively manage 3 separate generations? What happens when a Baby Boomer becomes frustrated with his Gen Y coworker who sends a seemingly terse email or uses a technological term that is unfamiliar? Or impatiently coaches a person through the use of digital technology?

(I don’t mean to generalize – there are many Boomers who are very tech-savvy, and many Millennials who don’t know how to use PowerPoint. I’m just using those examples because they seem to be most frequent.)

The other day I was horrified to see a work email from a younger co-worker (a work study student) that included “LOL” in the body, along with other blatant grammar and spelling errors. Where do we draw the line between personal and professional?

I could go on and on about this. But, for your sake, I won’t.