According to the authors, these changes were linguistically ‘unremarkable’ and ‘would not be out of place on a scribbled note left on the fridge door’ (2003: section 4). Thurlow’s discussion highlights a theme that runs through much of the academic research and commentary on the potential linguistic changes associated with new ICTs-that technologies such as email, IM, chat and SMS do not, for the most part, bring about changes in language forms, but rather amplify trends already underway. Studies consistently show that levels informality and the use of non-standard linguistic forms very according to context and purpose. As Crystal(2008) points out in the following passage, rebuses and other abbreviated forms of writing have been around for centuries: