I have yet to not see one of my peers walking with their eyes glued to their cell phones. They quickly type the day’s events on a tiny screen that they use almost all day, every day. Teenagers today use texting as a primary source of communication. Although texting is an efficient and quick way of communication, texting is reducing teen literacy due to lack of face to face communication, abbreviated spelling, and meaningless conversation. Teen literacy today is at a low. According to author Anne Lewis, “more than eight million students in grades 4-12 are reading at "below basic" levels” (Education Digest 51). Because of the simplicity of most ways of communication, it deprives the teens of communicating effectively. They become so used to …show more content…
These teens tended to score lower on literacy tests than those that did not (Plester, Wood, Bell 143). It was also observed that high texters scored lower on verbal and non-verbal reasoning than those who do not text and minimal texters (Plester, Wood, Bell 140). Results from studies on texting indicated an overall negative effect on literacy test results (Verheijen 595). It has been suggested that students are not distinguishing between informal and formal environments and are texting at the wrong times and places (Verheijen 587). The general message that the media sends about the effects of texting tend to be rather negative overall. For example, texting and driving is considered very dangerous due to a distracted driver. Many teens are involved in accidents due texting and driving. It was elicited during a study that participants took longer and made more errors when they had to read text messages as opposed to reading Standard English (Kemp and Bushnell 18). Thurlow is quoted saying that texting “signals the slow death of language” and is “a threat to social progress” (qtd. in Verheijen 586). Texting has more of a negative effect on teens’ literacy and could possibly cause the English we use today could become
Michaela Cullington, a student, wrote a paper “Does Texting Affect Writing?” in 2010 for an English class. The paper is an examination of texting and the belief that it negative effective student’s writing. Cullington goes into detail about textspeak- “language created by these abbreviations”- and their use in formal writings. She organizes the paper in a way that is confusing to understand at first (pg. 1). At the end of the paper, she discusses her finding in her own research which comes to show that texting does not affect writing. But this is contradicting to the information she received from the teachers. The students and the teachers were seeing differences in the use of textspeak in formal writing. Cullington has good support for her
Although writing and speech are commonly both considered as language, both are categorized very differently. In today’s society, writing is much more formal compared to speech. Texting is a mixture of both using informal speech in writing. Texting is often criticized due to the informal nature and improper vocabulary. In John McWhorter’s speech “Txting is killing language. JK!!” the author convinces readers that texting language is not as harmful to society as many would assume while adding his own professional and personal experiences as evidence.
Is it right for adolescent American students to text so profoundly? In my opinion, it is a very pessimistic thing and is having a negative effect on the students writing abilities and grammar. As it says in both passages ,“Text-Speak Is Harming Teens’ writing Skills,” and ,“Text-Speak Can Help Students,” recent studies have shown that an average teen sends about sixty texts per day. The use of informal language and slang takes place which can cause illness in academic work.
A recent outbreak in teen texting is taking a toll on their daily lives. Many teenagers have cell phones. Their parents get them phones for their safety and well-being, but is that what teens really use them for? I for one know that I rarely call my parents or use my phone for important reasons. Most of the time, I’m scrolling through Instagram and snapchat, to keep up with everyone that I will see in less than a day. The editorial from The Jersey Journal, called Teens are going to extremes with texting, informs the common people of the statistics of teen texting. The editorials main argument is communicating the excessiveness of teen texting. The author develops this point through expert uses of word choice, but also extreme examples and statistics.
“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 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.
Texting, and sending messages have a major negative impact on American teens’ writing skills. The American teenager sends about sixty text messages a day. Teens are often using slang while texting someone, for example lol means “laugh out loud”. While teens are texting like this, it is causing the effects of their academic work such as writing.
As stated in the article, “2b or Not 2b” by David Crystal, people believe that texting is not a natural form of communication and that it is wrecking our language. Although some people may agree with this idea, studies have challenged this opinion. Rather than fearing the consequences of texting, people should embrace this evolution and understand that this new form of communication may actually provide benefits to literacy. This author once stated, “there is no evidence that texting teaches people to spell badly: rather, research shows that those kids who text frequently are more likely to be the most literate and the best spellers, because you have to know how to manipulate language” (David Crystal Quotes). The moral panic created by this form of socialization should be diminished, as people have the power and ability to shape our future.
Texting, techspeak, and tweens: The relationship between text messaging and English grammar skills by Drew P. Cingel and S. Shyam Sundar (2012), is an article that discusses the connection between text messaging in adolescents and poor English grammar skills (Cingel & Sundar, 2012). Cingel started the study as a student investigating the effect of texting on grammar skills, after receiving text messages from his nieces, which were incomprehensible. (2012, July 26). Cingel combined with S. Shyam Sundar, a distinguished Professor of Communication and Co-director of the Penn State Media Effects Research Laboratory. The journal is ranked internationally and peer-reviewed, and is a seminal source that has contributed strongly to its’ field. These findings contribute significantly to the body of knowledge in terms of data and practical application. Demonstrated within this journal is a suitable methodology, a strong argument with reliable evidence, and a relevant writing style and structure.
You can say that overuse in texting is determination the way teens, students write formally in the classroom. Teens that spend most of their eyes on their phone has already created their own texting style. Now I am able to answer the question, how does texting affect teen literacy? Texting affects teen literacy because, text messaging does affect our grammar because, teens text like for example; “ttyl”, “gtg”, “wyd”. They find an easy way of texting rather than using the correct way. In order to get what they want done, we wanted to see and learn about the damage that texting can cause on teens and we did learn, we learned that it can affect our grammar, grades, and even your future in trying to get a job, your skills in so much more. I wanted to inform the teens about the damage that texting in short terms can do to you. Encourage them not to write in short term because, they are too
We spend on average two hours a day texting and usually the texts are no more than 180 characters, because we want to fit as much information as possible into as small a space by pressing the least amount of buttons. We are the generation that communicates through technology but we have also become the laziest generation, because we claim to not have enough energy or time to put a period at the end of our mainly abbreviated sentence. Basically, we have trained our eyes and brains to read very limited, so when it comes to reading big books we skim through them resulting in not being the best readers. Texting also causes lousy grammar, even with autocorrect we do not improve our vocabulary. Not to mention, the effect it has on our speaking and listening, as young people increasingly become connected to phone screens and avoid not face-to-face contact. As a result, we have become so acquainted to texting language we sometimes mistakenly say the abbreviation out loud, as I am sure everyone has heard the terms OMG, WTF, and LOL; speaking that gibberish out loud and causing other bigger picture issues like communication gaps between generations. Also, listening is another essential tool for learning but since most of the young people today text even during class we end up missing the important information. For these reasons, I think that texting does have a negative effect on
The feedback I received in Module One was helpful it showed that there was more interest in one topic over the other one. Our professor pointed out that teenager are not having much physical interaction with others; which, made me look at my topic of teenage literacy being affected by texting and realizing that texting might be affecting teenagers in so many other ways. This has helped me develop a stronger thesis statement that in turn will make for a good persuasive paper. Some of the key words that were helpful were Teens and texting and teenage literacy and texting. Articles on the Hoffington post, Globalpost, The New York Times and the Shapiro Library have been a great resource for my first stages of my topic search and paper development.
Marywood University’s student Michael Cullington did a research on, if texting affects writing. Texting is an easy and common way to communicate these days, from businesses to teenagers. Everybody uses abbreviation of some words or sentences in texts to quicker the communication. Texting escapes people from making calls. “Textspeak” (130) is a term used for the new language of abbreviations, symbols and acronyms. People argue on the positive and negative affects on students writing skills due to this new language of texting. Truth is that texting does not harm the students writing abilities in anyway.
Many articles today suggest that texting has become standard communication for teens. We rely on it too often, and is now more common than ever. All around the world, people are texting more and talking less daily. We may think that it has no effect on us, but in reality, it is killing our communication and writing skills.
Socializing is not just talking face to face, it’s our ability to interact, learn, and create original thoughts. Technology is hindering today’s youth and their ability to socialize is affecting their capacity to read, write, and communicate. Today’s youth depend on careful considerations for the implementation of technology. Our youth do not have the capability to convey their emotions through the use of technology, understand sadness, happiness or joy through simple text or emails. Communicating through the use of text, chat, and social network sites is lost using abbreviations and slang, inhibiting the use of the Standard English language.