DECATUR - Kapora Boone loves to send text messages.

One month, the 17-year-old junior at MacArthur High School sent about 1,000 of the short e-mail-like notes over her cellular phone, registering a hefty bill.

"It's like a temptation," Kapora said. "You get addicted to it."

Kapora isn't alone. Increasingly, many cellular phone users are communicating without saying a word.

In June 2000, about 12 million text messages were sent from wireless phones to others from United States numbers, according to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, an industry trade group. By June 2004, that number had risen to about 3 billion.

Yes, billion.

So what's the appeal?

"My take on it is they do a lot of text messages during school hours," said Kapora's mother, Mary Murphy, with a disapproving look. "When they're sitting in class, they can't be on their cell phones talking and leaving a voice message.

"But if they're typing in a text message, the teacher is less likely to know what they're doing."

Kapora agreed.

"We'll be at work or in church or - " Kapora began.

"Church?" her mother said, incredulously.

With many high-tech innovations, youths are leading the way.

And sometimes parents and educators are left scrambling to keep up with the steady march of technology.

Richland Community College, for example, recently enacted a policy stating all electronic devices must be turned off before entering a classroom - unless the device is approved in advance by the instructor.

The policy could thwart high-tech cheaters tempted to take a picture of a test with a cellular phone's camera or those who would store and send test answers electronically.

Often, teens will communicate in a cryptic language that leaves parents baffled. The language often is the same for text messages sent by cell phone and instant messages sent over the Internet.

"Be right back" becomes "BRB."

"Talk to you later" is shortened to "TTYL."

"Laughing out loud" is truncated to "LOL."

"See you later" is squeezed into "CUL8R or "CYALATA."

This trend in language is nothing new, experts say.

Earlier generations might have communicated in pig Latin or double talk. Shorthand has been around for generations in one form or another. Rock musicians often would speak a lingo more readily understood by youths than their parents.

Text messaging and instant messaging lingo could be this generation's way of creating a language of its own.

"That's something that happens again and again," said Robert Grindy, an English professor at Richland Community College. "Each generation invents new ways of using language."

Kris Muschal, an English instructor at Richland, said, "It's just a quick and easy way for students to connect with one another. The problem becomes when it starts to infect their academic writing."

So far, that hasn't been a widespread problem, Muschal said.

Muschal communicates with students by instant messaging over the Internet. Occasionally, she'll speak the lingo with "BRB" or "LOL" or emoticons - smiley faces and other expressions constructed from parentheses and colons and other keyboard strokes.

"If you communicate with students in their language, they feel more comfortable, and you appear to be a more approachable instructor," Muschal said. "But I don't do it in my academic writing - and they don't, either."

Some language purists may resist any changes. But others recognize language is organic and changes continually. Insisting on shared linguistic conventions may just slow down the evolution of language to a pace most language users can keep up with.

"If (language) changed without anybody to put the brakes on it, we probably wouldn't be able to speak to each other in 10 or 20 years," Grindy said. "I don't know anybody who thinks we can keep it from changing."

It's not just teenagers who are chatting by text messages and instant messages.

Julie Erwin-Fane sells items on eBay, and customers have virtually constant access to her through the high-tech communications medium. She also enjoys communicating with friends and classmates in Millikin University's Professional Adult Comprehensive Education program.

Erwin-Fane estimates she sends and receives hundreds of instant messages each day from her portable phone.

"Now I'm addicted; I'm hooked," Erwin-Fane said. "I go to bed with (the cell phone) on my nightstand."

Laura Kidd, a 17-year-old junior at MacArthur High School, enjoys chatting with classmates and friends with text messages and instant messages.

But if a stranger sends her a message over the Internet, Laura doesn't reply.

"A lot of people talk to people they don't know," Laura said. "I don't see a point to it. I don't really feel comfortable doing that."

Predators can lurk online, experts say.

But parents need not freak out about a new technology they don't understand, said Parry Aftab, a privacy attorney and executive director of wiredsafety.org.

"It's really a matter of sitting down and talking to kids," Aftab said. She advises online users to follow the "Golden Rule" of cyberspace: "Don't do anything online you wouldn't do offline."

Most children have heard their parents say "come straight home after school."

"In cyberspace, that means enjoy the Internet but have a reason to go there and don't stay there too long," Aftab said.

Most people wouldn't share personal or financial information with a stranger face-to-face. Neither should they share such information with a stranger through an instant message or a text message.

"It's really not about technology at all," Aftab said. "It's really about parenting and good judgment. It really is that simple."

Mike Frazier can be reached at mfrazier@;herald-review.com or 421-7985.