Jenny Damon (Edison): Txtng: The Gr8 Db8

  A generation facing the highest academic expectations in history is spending more and more time texting friends using mangled English.  According to an article by Joni Balter from the Seattle Times, terms like “cu” and “lol” will lead “good grammar and spelling 2b4gotten”.  How will students ever be able to differentiate between “you’re” and “your” while writing only abbreviated language.  Linguistics professor David Crystal, in an article entitled “2b or not 2b?”, argues that texting actually improves writing and spelling.  His counter argument is that “a trillion messages are but a small ripple in the sea of language”.  For generations, we have been amusing ourselves with abbreviations that have not been standardized.  The “SWAK, msg, and xlnt” of past generations are easily compared to the text abbreviations of “cos, wot, and 2bctnd” of today’s texters.  He also notes that the latest studies from Coventry University have begun to dispel the myths.  “The more abbreviations in their messages, the higher they scored on tests of reading and vocabulary.  The children who were better at spelling and writing used the most textisms.  The younger they received their first phone, the higher their scores.”  Although this study by David Crystal sounds impressive and reassuring, I question the conclusions.  How can a student “play” with the language if they don’t know the language?  How do we know that those high scoring children are scoring high relative to others  in spite of their crippled grammar skills via texting habits?  More studies will surely continue to follow the impact of texting on the written language. 

How good are you?  YY UR YY UB I C U R  YY 4 ME.  (By the way, this was actually taken from a Christmas card several generations ago.) 

This entry was posted on 8. June 2009 at 04:28 and is filed under Introduction to Sociology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.