Roberts 1

Breon Roberts

S. C. McGriff

ENC 1101

10/29/19

Does electronic communication stunt the English language?

While electronic communication has done a lot to help improve the exchange of ideas

and opinions, there have been some setbacks it has caused. Some believe that electric

communication has damaged the English language, while others think it has improved overall

communication. After all as john Mcworther states in Is texting killing the human langue

“Texting is developing it’s own kind of grammar”(4) Meaning that there are two types of writing

that we use. Over the course of my writing, I will go over if electronic communication has

damaged the English language, enlarged our social interaction and vocabulary, and finally

limited the way people communicate.

Some say that Online communication hasn’t damaged the English language at all, and I

wonder if they have ever texted anyone. Much less have had a conversation in a chat room.

Typically, common grammar rules are ignored, people tend to just talk in the simplest way

possible to speed up a conversation. So no, I do not agree with that side, my personal view is that

texting, emailing, and group chats have destroyed our language. Most of the time, people won’t

even fully respond to you in text, they just send a fragment, and this is completely normal now.

As stated in Gerald Graff’s They say, I say: The Moves that Matter “When, for instance, you’re

replying to a friend’s text asking, “Meet in front of the theater at 7?” a mere “OK” suffices…”

This is utter proof of how Online communication has changed the way we talk.
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People argue that it has enlarged our social interaction and vocabulary. People such as

John Mcworther, speaker for texting is killing language jk sates “Once you have things in your

pocket that can receive that message, then you have the conditions that allow that we can write as

we speak. And that's where texting comes in. And so, texting is very loose in its structure. No

one thinks about capital letters or punctuation when one texts, but then again, do you think about

those things when you talk? No, and so, therefore, why would you when you were texting?”.

(2:32-3:10)There is a flaw in Mcworther’s views, while it is understandable that People

Shouldn’t have to text formally during text the problem is people bring that way of talking past

just texting. I know I find it hard not to use certain words in a paper because I’m so used to using

them in text.

It's not that texting is the issue exactly. It’s the mindset of texting that carries over into

formal writing that causes an issue.

I don’t think Online communication has limited the way we communicate. Others may

say that communication has limited the ways we talk, they bring up how we no longer speak in

person and how we no longer call. Well duh, there are multiple ways to communicate with

someone now that is simpler. Each method fits the needs of a certain type of individual. The

article Textese gr8 training 4 poets of 2moro by The Age (Melbourne, Australia) states “She was

surprised to find 86 percent of children aged between 10 and 12 had mobile phones and all sent

text messages. When asked how many they sent and received a day, the children's estimates

ranged from less than one to 315. "Even sending 200 messages a day would mean an average of

one message every five minutes every available waking hour, which seems excessive," Dr.

Kemp says. Eighty percent of children claimed to send and receive 100 short messages a day.”.

(11-14). From this I conclude that we talk enough, it’s just the way people communicate has
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changed. The world has changed and so has the way we speak to each other, there is nothing

wrong with that.

Overall, I don’t believe technology is adherently bad or evil, I do not think that It has

caused all these issues by itself. I do however believe that it has played its role in these issues.

Everyone at some point in their life will use technology, I think this is a good thing. I just wish to

see the English language not be destroyed by these types of communications. While they are

simpler, and even I use some myself it just seems to mess up my formal writing the more I do it.

I’m not exactly choosing sides on the matter I’m just simply giving my world views and

opinions.
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Works cited

"Textese gr8 training 4 poets of 2moro." Age [Melbourne, Australia], 12 Sept. 2011, p.

16. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A279554922/OVIC?u=lincclin_sjrcc&sid=OVIC&xid=53

f94273. Accessed 30 Oct. 2019.

McWhorter, John. “Txtng Is Killing Language. JK!!!” TED,

https://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk?language=en.

Graff, Gerald, And Cathy Birkenstein. They say I say: The Moves that Matter. W.W.

Norton and company, 2018.

McWhorter, John. “Is Texting Killing the English Language?” Time, Time, 25 Apr. 2013,

http://ideas.time.com/2013/04/25/is-texting-killing-the-english-language/.