Texting is now a reality of everyday life for many of us, particularly our young people.

Dustin Swanson is principal at Peacock Collegiate in Moose Jaw and he says that despite the volume of communication via texting and social media, schools are still working on the basics.

"Certainly there's a lot of effort put forward to develop formal writing, proper writing, proper grammatical form and punctuation. However the reality is most students communicate via text and through loose conversation, not writing."

The use of texting and platforms like Snapchat is leading to a world where many young people miss the skills some of us take for granted.

"It is a big challenge. We find students don’t have the experience and use punctuation incorrectly, or most commonly they don’t use punctuation at all."

One positive change is in the area of keyboarding skills. Most young people now learn this early in life at home.