The Stakes of the Irruption of SMS in the Daily Scriptural Practices of African Young French-Speaking: The Case Study of Young Ivorians

The integration of technology into our newly emerging African societies remains controversial. It has encouraged the emergence of SMS in the daily scriptural practices of the younger generation, thus opening a boulevard to different social fields of communication and making it difficult to democratize technology in this continent. This raises a series of questions and reflections on the quality of written production of future generations, since linguistic and typographical norms in interactions are already marked by transgressions, creating more gaps between the acquisition of good spelling practices that are already poorly assimilated and compliance with the norm. Consequently, these technological tools (mobile phones, computers,...), which offer quite original and attractive advantages for young French-speaking Africans, are proving to be a major obstacle to the acquisition of language skills and language development. This article is a contribution to the description of the main consequences of the spontaneous entry of SMS into the daily scriptural practices of young French-speaking Africans in general and particularly young Ivorians, in the face of technological development and proposes a theoretical framework for moderate use.