The Pros And Cons Of Technology

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From the invention of the cotton gin that spurred the industrial revolution to the invention of the computer that spurred communication, technology is thought to have helped mankind throughout the ages by making things faster, more accessible, and easier to handle. Although many kinds of technologies are relatively new and the consequences not yet know, the pros far outweigh the cons. For example, genetically modified organisms are a great way to increase the global food supply and even have the potential of curing world hunger. However, the consequences of consuming genetically modified foods are not yet known since the technology is so new. Seemingly the best inventions that sewed the twentieth century with the twenty-first century is the invention of computers and phones with greater capability, which rapidly increased communication. One downfall of this newfound mode of communication is how the English language is changing due to a simplified way that people choose to communicate through these devices. Although technology increases the ease that one can communicate, it has evolved into a new language, through different means of communication like text messaging and blogging.
SMS, better known as text messaging, has changed the way people communicate due to the shortness that these messages need to be. Due to the fact that text messages need to be under 160 characters means that the people sending them need to make their messages straightforward and to the point. As a result of this, various acronyms and “the use of single letters, numerals, and typographic symbols [are used] to represent words, parts of words, or even . . . noises associated with actions” (Crystal 37). These acronyms have not only changed the way that...

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...Brandwatch analyzed the popular social network Twitter and found that “a total of 0.56 percent of words posted on the micro-blogging site are either misspelled or unofficial” (Castleford Media).
Technology has affected the English language in both good and bad ways in that it has increased the rate that which we can communicate with each other, but at the supposed expense of the literacy of those who use these modes of communication. It seems, since the pros far outweigh the cons, that technology is helpful to communication because it can enables everything that uses it to function at a faster rate since things like instant messaging and text messaging arrive nearly instantly. The unique thing about these technologies is mainly that “if [people] are in school, you can give them poor grads; if they are applying for jobs, you can pass them over;” so what can we do

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