It has been informed by an Australian psychology lecturer that though abbreviated "text speak" is quicker to write than normal English, it takes twice as long to read.

Nenagh Kemp of the University of Tasmania concluded this through his study under which he took 55 students who took about 26 seconds to read a "text speak" message aloud while it took only 14 seconds for them to read similar messages written out with full English spelling.

Kemp concluded, "I think that we're so accustomed to reading words spelled in conventional English, which we can read without sounding out the words, that when a spelling like 'frendz' comes along, we have to stop and sound it out, so it slows us down, even if we get to the right answeres."