Replogle 1

William Replogle

Prof. McGriff

Composition 1

03/11/20

Is Texting Killing the English Language

Many people of this day believe the texting is hurting the English language. Due to the

“shorthand” many youths use to communicate thoughts and ideas via complete coherent

thoughts, some older or educated people believe it is more harmful than anything else. On the

contrary, texting makes communication easier to convey ideas, express thoughts, and gives the

ability of almost instantaneous communication of two or more people in a short amount of time.

In the ability to convey ideas easy, “with just a few taps of the keyboard, we can b

connected with what others have said not only throughout history, but right now, in the most

remote places (Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, They Say, I Say, 166). The ability with

almost instantaneous communication by not only computer has been made easier with invention

of the smart phone in recent years. Forgoing to computers that took up whole rooms to having

that whole technology and more in the palm of your hand and at the tips of your fingers is simply

incredible.

Expressing thoughts with this younger generation has always been hard with most of

them being introverted social bugs who never leave their phone. “Sending a message on a mobile

phone is not the most natural way of communication” (David Crystal, “2b or Not 2b”,

Everyone’s an Author, 903). One of the major problems with communication over a mobile

device is that one cannot express emotion or feelings as easily as expressing it face to face. Some
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would argue that the addition of “emojis” and the original “emoticons” help with expressing

these emotions.

With the addition of mobile phones becoming more advance over the years,

instantaneous commication has been made easier. With that, the ability to convey ideas has

become almost impossible with abbreviating such language. “Given that textese has properties of

both written as well as spoken language and spoken language is less bound by formal grammar

rules than written language, it is likely that effects of textese on children's grammar might rather

be reflected in tasks assessing children's grammatical competence in spoken language.” (Chantal

N. van Dijk, Merel van Witteloostuijn, Nada Vasic, Sergey Avrutin, Elma Blom, “The Influence

of Texting Language on Grammar and Executive Functions in Primary School Children,” online

source). With the shortening of grammar and phonics, some see it as a problem amongst children

using this form of communication as it might inhibit their ability to write in the real world.