Is texting killing the English language?

Short answer, no. Texting is not the only form of communication that uses abbreviations- we do this when we speak- I don't know anyone that says "I am taking my Budgerigar to the veterinarians today." We say "I'm taking my Budgie to the vet's today." Text speak, as long as it is confined to digital communications is fine. It's only a problem when it infiltrates our written language- I can't imagine some of the most famous pieces of literature filled with 2s and RUs. In modern literature- let's take the Harry Potter books- were they filled with abbreviations only relatable to the most seasoned texter? No, they weren't. They were properly written with, you know, real words and sentence structures.

The removal of the hyphen really isn't the end of the world. It is not the end of the English language as we know it. The purpose of a hyphen is to link two words together to create a new word, but surely the - between two words shows that they are not one word at all. Simply linking the two words together, for example potbelly over pot-belly, shows that the two words are now one word and also adds to the overall cohesion of a text. And, anyway, hyphens make sentences ugly.

It's also not fair to blame the younger generation- in my experience the older generation has embraced shorthand in texts more than my generation. An example text conversation with my mum:
Mum: "wen will U B home"
Me: "About half 7 I think."
Mum: "hve U had T"
Me: Yeah, I have thanks."

Anyway, who's to say that text speak isn't the next stage in the evolution of our communication? We don't use hieroglyphics anymore, or paint images on cave walls, or carve delicate images on clay pots showing the sacrifice of a sheep to a god. As technology develops, we are finding quicker and easier means to communicate with each other. Re-working the English language to suit a range of diverse needs only becomes a problem when the English language is unrecognisable. But even then, the way we speak now isn't the way Shakespeare spoke, so could these new developments in spoken, written and technological language simply be the Next Stage? With advancing technology, who knows, maybe there will be a holographic message service, so we can beam images of ourselves to each other. And with all this new technology, aren't there bigger things we should be worrying about, say... nuclear weapons?