“IF U LOVE ME AS I LOVE U
THEN I & U WILL MAKE 1 OF 2”

This quotes is:

1. A text message.

2. A Prince lyric.

3. A verse by Vermont’s Ebenezer White, written in 1782, as a marriage proposal to Lucy Packard, his future bride.

Yes, number three it is.

Which seems to me a reasonable counterpoint to all of this ‘IM and text shorthand is killing the English language’ alarmism.

Turns out, we’re not nearly as original or influential as we’d like to think.