As society and technology advances, formal letter writing is declining rapidly. During the 1800’s, writing formal letters was one of the most effective ways of getting in touch with family and friends that are miles away .You would simply write a letter and send it to your destination. The only problem with this is that people would get tired of waiting for their letter to arrive. Personal, formal writing has greatly decreased by two - three percent every year. New inventions like telephoning, text messaging, and email are the main technology gurus that are at fault for the major decline in formal letter writing. These are the new inventions that the populations have found for a more practical way of communication.
Two out of every five household member use text messaging and send about 2,357 text messages a month ; this brings the question of, What is the reason for writing formal letters ,if writing it in a couple of words is a lot easier and time efficient? Most people believe that writing formal letter is a waste of time. Text messaging is known to be one of the easiest ways of communication with your family and friends. The new generation now days use mostly text message because they are lazy to pick up a pencil and write their thoughts and feelings, and send a letter. They shorten the words to make the message shorter and they use abbreviations like “IDK” which means,”I don’t know”, to shorten their message. The age range that has the highest text message rate is ages 13-17. The older the person is the less text messages are being sent, and the younger the person is the more text messages are being sent. The older the person is the more personal, formal letter writings are sent. Text messaging might be an easier and efficie...
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...believe that the new inventions of the telephone, text messaging, and email is a great idea. Sending and receiving letter is a hassle. Having to wait for the other persons response keeps you anxious and it makes you wait a lot longer. Being able to connect with the person in a matter of seconds is great in the sense that you will not have to wait for their response. Technology increases rapidly and I believe that the use of telephoning, text message, and, email will one day decrease as well. As the years go by there are new inventions that may benefit our use of getting our message cross. The formal letter writing is considered an older way of communication and is not useful anymore. It was an event in a time in this world that helped people communicate distances away. As technology is being invented, there are more effortless and efficient ways of sending a letter.
It's taking over our lives. We can do it almost anywhere. What is it? It's texting! Texting is a reliable, easy and convenient form of communication that is most commonly used by, but not limited to millenials and those in the workforce. Many people use it as a way to express themselves as well. In Michaela Cullington’s article, “Does Texting Affect Writing?” she targets two different attitudes in relation to texting. Cullington explains that there is often an assumption that students who use abbreviations when they text, will bring those same abbreviations over to their formal writing pieces. Cullington then adds that the other attitude in relation to writing skills and texting insists that texting is harming student’s writing capabilities. Because of her research as well as experiments done by other colleagues of hers, it shows that
Technology is not killing our ability to write, but it is reviving it and pushing our literacy to new directions. Andrea Lunsford, from Stanford University, conducted an experiment to scrutinize college students way of writing. Her results were alarming, "I think we are in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization." Lunsford discovered that only 38% of students writing occurred within the classroom, the rest was written in their own free time. Most of our socializing now takes place online and always involves text or writing. Before the Internet, most of our communication was verbal. The only time Americans wrote was for a school assignment and if their job required writing. Otherwise most people didn't write another paragraph once they left
Text messaging has become a norm in our generation, as technology rapidly advances and gives way to more efficient forms of communication in a fast-paced world; and many are skeptical about the influence this new form of interaction is having on our society, especially with our younger generation. David Crystal, a professor at the University of Wales, writes “2b or Not 2b?” in support of text messaging. He insists, despite those who underestimate or negate the beneficial influence text messaging has on language proficiency, that “there is increasing evidence that [texting] helps rather than hinders literacy” and that the fairly recent form of communication has actually been around for a while and “is merely the latest manifestation of the human ability to be linguistically creative and to adopt language to suit the demands of diverse settings. In contrast, Jeffery Kluger argues in “We Never Talk Anymore: The Problem with Text Messaging” that text messaging is rapidly becoming a substitute for more genuine forms of communication and is resulting in difficulty among young peoples of our generation to hold a face-to-face conversation, engage in significant nonverbal expression, and ultimately build effective relationships with family, friends and co-workers. Both writers’ present valid arguments, however, my personal experience with text messaging has led me to agree more with Crystal’s view on the matter. Text messaging is indeed having a positive effect on society by making frequent texters primarily aware of the need to be understood, as well as offering betterment of spelling and writing through practice, and reinventing and expanding on a bygone dimension of our language through the use of rebuses and abbreviations.
Kutcher claims “ We haven’t lost romance in the digital age, but we may be neglecting it, in doing so, acquainted art forms are taking on new importance.The power of a handwritten letter is greater than ever. It’s personal and deliberate and means more than e-mail or text ever will.’’(96)Handwriting is different and unique for each individual. You can look at the letter and judge how much effort a person put into writing it. The mistakes they make show how we as humans are not perfect. and in an intimate relationship writing to your signficant other in a sense you are giving them apart of yourself.It shows feeling, sensitivity and thoughtfulness.Your thoughts and feelings written on paper that they can go back and review it at any time they wish. It has much more meaning versus a text that may have taken just a few seconds. The meaning behind handwriting and letters are by far much deeper. It takes a few effortless seconds to glide ones fingers across a screen and send a text.The effort put into a text does not compare to the time thought out in physical form. Thus the connection is simply not as
In the business world of the late 1800s, offices experienced an influx of typewriters and with them, female typists prepared to take dictation. (McLuhan, Understanding Media, 259) Prior to the rise of typewriters, good handwriting and a thoughtful handwritten letter had been what was expected by the codes of professional conduct. However, in the typewriter-driven age, it became possible to tap out quick letters and more casual drafts. Soon, no business could be without a multitude of typewriters as the economy adapted to the speed of the new machines. This quicker pace of the business world began to permeate Western society as the efficiency of companies changed the speed at which people lived. The phrase “send me a memo on that” was on the lips of hundreds of businessmen. (McLuhan, ...
Two reasons that professors consider emails to be like letters rather than text messages is because the way of the writing in the email it needs to be more formally and more faithful adherence. Also, when writing an email the person needs to make sure their spelling, punctuation, capitalization and syntax is well-formed.
In the past three hundred years communication has changed so much that sometimes it is hard to imagine. We have gone from hand written, hand delivered letters in the 1700’s to text messaging and face time. Humans naturally strive to make things better, to find easier ways of doing things. Communication has gone from only spoken messages to, written, typed, and then electronic.
...f writing provide for a fast and effective mode of communication. There are both positive and negative characteristics associated with the use of the postal mail system and the handwritten letter versus electronic mail and computer created text. However, without the invention of e-mail it would not be possible for me to communicate and keep in touch with my family overseas as often and frequently as I do. Thanks to e-mail I can now build a better relationship with family members I seldom get to physically interact with.
In today’s society the Internet has greatly reduced the number of sent letters through the US postal service. This is true because if you can send the same information to somebody without wasting paper it is much better on the environment. Another reason why so many people have switched to using e-mail is that it is just simply faster than waiting for a letter in the mail. One more reason people use e-mail more is that the rate of postage to send a letter is steadily going up. It is currently at 37 cents per letter where sending e-mail is free. Some of the negative effects of this shift of people using e-mail over actually mailing their letters is the postage per letter is increasing more often than ever because more people use the internet to send letters now because it is just faster than mailing a letter which could take up to a week to get to your house where e-mail is instantaneous.
Which form of communication do you think you use more often? Communication has been essential for us, for as long as we have known. The two forms of communication discussed in this essay are mail and texting. Mail has been around since the mid-nineteenth century while the first text ever sent was in 1992. Whichever method used, they are great ways to communicate with other people. We will discuss the differences and similarities of communicating through a text or a letter in the mail. This generation use both forms of communication and we will see what makes them different. This essay will discuss the differences and similarities of communicating through a text on a cell phone or a letter in the mail.
Communication has changed so much over time. Everyone has cell phones or smartphones. It cut out letter writing, everyone barely even uses paper. Cell phones have been helpful for making it easier to get in touch people. Also, it is faster than writing a letter. Another thing is wifi. Everyone uses it, and I do not think that I or anyone else could live without it.
Step onto any college campus and take a look around. You will find clumps of students standing around in circles, phones in hand, typing away. What is it they are doing? Texting. Ever since the first text message was sent in 1993, the use of text messaging as a means of communication has spread like wild fire, especially amongst the adolescent generation. And with this new form of communication a new language has appeared; text-speak, the shortening of common words into abbreviations and acronyms (Drouin 49). While texting and the text-speak language seem to have been welcomed by many, what affect is this new technology having on the way we communicate? Is it possible that texting is negatively affecting our ability to use formal written communication, or is this idea just a myth perpetuated by negative media attention? And what changes has texting brought to the way we communicate person-to person? Are these changes positive, negative, or perhaps a mixture of both?
“Our generation doesn't ring the doorbell. They text or call to say they're outside,” this line is from one of the well-known social networks, Tweeter, which shows how the way of communication has change in this modern life. According to 2013 statistics by Business Insider, in United States alone, smartphone owners aged 18 to 24 send 2,022 texts per month on average — 67 texts on a daily basis — and receive another 1,831 texts (Cocotas). Nowadays, technology such as text messaging has practically replaced traditional face to face communication among the society primarily in young generations because texting allows messages to be sent fast and effortless. In order to quickly type what they are trying to say in text messaging, people are frequently using textspeak; the language created by using abbreviation rather than complete words. Based on this phenomenon, David Crystal, an honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Wales has published an article entitled ‘2b or not 2b?’ in the Guardian on July 5, 2008 comes out with the research and studies that state texting can actually improve the literacy of children and create creativity of writing. However, by observing more critically, texting do decrease a person’s ability to switch between textspeak and the normal rules of grammar and adversely affect formal writing and conversational skills.
Text messaging is damaging our literacy and communication skills as a society. Calling someone on the phone or writing them a letter is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. There is a new language that is being learned and not taught across the globe. It is the language of Textese, and it has quickly consumed the lives of millions across the world. There will always be the protector of language arts. These are the shrinking number of people everyone knows, that will continue to handwrite letters and sign them with proper English and etiquette. It may be as simple as picking up the phone and calling a friend or relative. It may be even simpler than that, in that people put forth an effort to talk to the person sitting next to or across from you and engage them in a conversation. Texting and textisms have become so common and widespread that using proper English, correct spelling, and full sentences is also becoming a thing of the past. People that constantly use text and instant messaging may have difficulty with literacy and expressing themselves in writing form. The research shows that text messaging has deteriorated how we communicate and express ourselves because textisms have become an easier and quicker form of communication that has affected literacy in children and adults.
It changes how we communicate, when we communicate, where we can communicate, how often we communicate and what accessories we use to communicate. Overall, everything about writing has changed. Jobs are changing and some are being eliminated because of the increase in technology. Students’ writing has changed so much because of how much and how fast they are communicating on a regular basis. The tools we use to communicate have changed from verbal to nonverbal. Technology has really changed the efficiency, speed, and simplicity of business