The technology of text messaging has affected language, driving, bullying and flirting in the teenage culture of America. Text messaging has urbanized into its own sub-culture around a form of grammar that is incomprehensive unless you know the slang and what the abbreviations mean. According to a study done at Pew Research Center, 88% of teenagers have a cell phone so it’s not unexpected that text messaging has became the norm in our society.
Today’s teenagers are writing more than ever even though it’s on a cell phone. In fact, they are texting so much that some critics are saying that it’s affecting their language skills. Papers written using poor punctuation, bad grammar, and inappropriate abbreviations are being reported by middle and high school teachers (Russell). This is due in part to the many short hand abbreviations and automatic spell correcting software used in text messaging. According to physicians and psychologists, text messaging is leading to anxiety, distraction in school, failing grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation (Hafner D1). Also, using text messaging jargon in homework sometimes becomes a habit.
Text messaging is also affecting how safe teenagers drive. In 2008 5,870 people were killed in crashes that involved text messaging or 16% of total fatalities (NHTSA). Also in 2008, almost 20% of all crashes in the year involved text messaging (NHTSA). Before text messaging the only distractions were the radio, food, and makeup. According to a study done by University of Utah teenagers who text while driving are six times more prone to crash than someone who is focused on the road.
It’s also been proven that distraction from cell phone use while driving extends a driver’s reaction time as ...
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National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Statistics and Facts About Distracted Driving. Washington: NHTSA, 2000. Web. 28 Sep 2010.
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One woman, Ms. Smith, who was affected by this issue, did some research into what made texting while driving so dangerous. She was shocked to find that a driver on the phone has the same reaction time as a drunk driver. Hane’s article also discusses cell phone addiction and the bad habits people have with cell phones. Researchers have found that a person who noticed they received a text message gets a big rush to their brain, much like professional gamblers when they hit the jackpot.
The Editors. (2009). Should texting cellphone use by drivers be illegal?. The New York Times. Retrieved from www.thenewyorktimes.com
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The several effects of distracted driving are deadly. Andrew Lavallee points out that “texting while driving is unsafe. Not only are a driver’s eyes off the road, one or both hands are off the wheel.” “We think it is incompatible with safe driving” (qtd. in Lavallee). “Study upon study showed that talking on a cellphone was far more dangerous than she’d realized – that a driver on a phone had the same reaction speed as someone legally intoxicated, that those talking on a phone behind the wheel are four times as likely to crash” (qtd. in Hanes). Stephanie Hanes also mentions that, “Unlike a conversation with a passenger, the electronic conversation takes a driver into a virtual space away from the road.” Subsequently, this causes severe problems and deadly
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.
Texting is a common method of communication nowadays. Human interaction has been inevitably changing over its existence - from speaking to handwritten messages to email, for example. Though many people consider texting a bad influence on a person’s vocabulary and grammar, it is not killing writing. It is obvious that English will change in the future, and texting is just a fluctuation in its evolution. The TED Talks video “Txting is killing language. JK!” by John McWhorter and the article “Is Text Messaging Ruining English?” by Jane Solomon both describe how texting is affecting writing.
...fine. The sanctions rise for successive offenses as well, with the second violation calling for an amount in the region of $250 fine and the third and subsequent violations carrying $500 fines each. Violators are also disciplined ruthlessly if their actions result to an accident (Chretien n.p.). Some other states, such as California and Virginia have fines of $20 for breaking their texting while driving laws (“Texting While Driving Legislation”). Imposing only a fine of such low monetary value does not properly bear the significance of the crime or work strongly enough to discourage drivers from doing away with their phones putting their phones while driving. To unify evenly, the law should be enforced to deter texting while driving. The punishment for contravening the law should be constant throughout the country. The model used by Massachusetts should be embraced.
“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.
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
Thesis statement: Risks of texting while driving over the past few years has become a key topic for many Americans through the country. It has been the cause of numerous deaths and injuries and remains a vast disturbance for drivers. Hence driving is one of the greatest common causes of misfortunes on roads. This can result in, physical visual and cognitive distraction and significantly increases the amount of time a driver devotes not looking at the road. Therefore police officers should seize the phones of those who text and drive.
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.
The use inventive spelling, abbreviations. As high school students start to use short texting, some of their grades dropped due to the spelling errors they make. So many teens get used to wing abbreviating that they just begin to write that that way. Some teenagers writing skills have turned into sentence fragments, because of the limited space they put into text sentence. In my research how does texting affect teen literacy the percentage was 64 percent of students who say they incorporated text language in their writing, 25 percent said they did so to convey have used text shortcuts a lot of students, vocabulary and grammar is also affecting their literacy. The outlook of the teachers is that. Text plus recently released results of its own survey of 1,214 teens that use their services. 43 percent of which have texted in class, they seem to pay more attention to their phone than what the teacher is teaching. They seem to have the phones that will spell the word for them so they have to worry about spelling. In the age of text message, where words are reduce to no stand abbreviating, symbols, But in my research I pointed out that technology has put new emphasis on reading and
One of the dangers of texting while driving at the same time is the attention it takes away from the road. A driver, who is focused on looking at their phone, is not paying enough attention to other cars or what is happening around them. Something as simple as a car stopping in front of them can cause serious damage to the driver and to the other car. “Texting” while driving is the act of composing, sending, or reading text messages, email, or making other similar use of the internet on a mobile device while operating a motor vehicle, such as an automobile, truck, or train (Reuters). Many people and authorities have viewed it as a dangerous practice. It is on occasion like this, where familiarity with the road and surrounding will not make it easier for the driver to look at their cell phone. The probabilities of drivers texting on the cell phone and getting into accidents are only getting higher. Cell phone use while driving accounts for a major cause of
When a person texts on their cell phones, they are disconnecting themselves from everything around them, and only paying attention to what is in their hands. Texting, on a regular and daily basis, has both an emotional and physical effects on human beings. Texting can have many problems such as how it affects the people around the user, and how it affects teenagers at school. This paper will explain the problems of texting and how it affects people.