Adapting to a world of ever-shorter screens and ever-longer laundry lists of activities, today's tech-savvy teens are creating a whole new language of abbreviations as they use cell phones and computers to correspond via short electronic communications called "text messages." But the rise of this new form of alphabet-soup shorthand has educators debating its effect on students' writing habits.

The text messages on 13-year-old Margarete Stettner's cell phone are filled with shortcuts—like "G2G" for "got to go" and "LOL" instead of "laugh out loud." Even when she isn't using her phone, the lingo sometimes makes its way into what she writes.

"It does affect, sometimes, how I do my schoolwork," the teen from Hartland, Wis., said as she shopped in a mall, where cellular phones are as common as low-cut jeans. "Instead of a Y-O-U, I put a U."

That alarms some educators and linguists, who worry that the proliferation of text messaging—where cell phone users type and send short messages to other phones or computers—will enforce sloppy, undisciplined writing habits among American youths. Other experts, though, don't think the abbreviations will leave their mark on standard English.

In June 2001, wireless phone users sent 30 million text messages in the United States, according to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, an industry trade organization. By June 2002, that number had increased to nearly 1 billion.

The method is most popular among teenagers, according to Upoc Inc., a New York-based firm that helps users of mobile devices share information on everything from the rapper Bow Wow to celebrity sightings. A study by Upoc in 2001 found 43 percent of cellular phone users ages 12 to 17 used text messaging, compared with 25 percent of those ages 30 to 34.

These teenagers, hampered by limited space and the difficulty of writing words on numeric phone keypads, helped create the text-messaging lingo.

Words are abbreviated ("WL" for "will"), and common phrases become acronyms ("by the way" turns into "BTW"). There are even dictionaries to sort out the meaning of, say, "AFAIK" ("as far as I know").

"SOL" can mean "sooner or later" or "sadly out of luck," but if you're unclear on which was meant, simply message back a "W" (what?) or "PXT" (please explain that) for a clarification.

Jesse Sheidlower, principal editor of the U.S. office of the Oxford English Dictionary, said text messaging is going through the natural progression of language.

Much text-messaging lingo was first used in instant-messaging programs on personal computers, and some phrases, such as "SWAK" for "sealed with a kiss," have been used for decades, Sheidlower said.

As text messengers discover and share new abbreviations and acronyms, the language becomes familiar to a growing population of cell phone users. And as more people use the lingo for text messaging, Sheidlower said, it is more likely to spill into speech or writing.