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Impact of social media on spoken and written language
Negative effect of social media on our language
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Is Social Media and Texting Killing our Ability to Write?
Is texting and social media killing our ability to write or is it helping it? Clive Thompson argues in his article “New Literacy” that social media is reviving our ability to write, young people write far more than any other generation before them, when they write on social media they pursued their audience and texting and status updating teaches kids haiku like writing skills.
“Young people write so much more than any other generation before them says Thompson”. All the writing that the Stanford students did 38 percent took place outside, that’ almost 40 percent and you write a lot in school. Americans barely never wrote much outside of school unless it was a school assignment or their
In the article “Clive Thompson on the New Literacy,” writer Clive Thompson argues that the widespread use of technology and social media does not make kids illiterate and unable to form coherent sentences, but instead, keeps them actively writing and learning. Thompson’s article is based off of a study done by Andrea Lunsford, a writing professor at Stanford University. Thompson agrees with Lunsford that the use of social media and the Internet allow students to be creative and get better at writing. In his article, Thompson quotes John Sutherland, an English professor at University College of London, to inform the audience of the opposite side of the argument. He states, “Facebook encourages narcissistic blabbering, video and PowerPoint have
While preparing for one of his college lectures, Dennis Baron, a professor and linguistics at the University of Illinois, began playing with the idea of how writing has changed the world we lived in and materials and tools we use in everyday life. This lecture slowly transitioned into “Should Everybody Write?” An article that has made many wonder if technology has made writing too easy for anyone to use or strengthens a writer's ability to learn and communicate their ideas. Baron uses rhetorical strategies in his article to portray to his audience his positive tone, the contrast and comparison of context and his logical purpose.
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
In the article, “Does Texting Affect Writing?”, the author Michaela Cullington conveys her speculation that texting does not correlate to how students write formal essays. At the beginning of the article Cullington introduces the term texting and the convenience texting brings. Later expressing her concern that the texting language “Textspeak” is actually affecting students writing; then contradicts these views by using primary and secondary sources (news articles, books, her own surveys and research). In addition, she uses an anecdote to tell of her own experience with texting and writing. Together with other evidences and research put together, she uncovers the debate between textspeak and formal writing. On the basis of her research, she concludes that the state of texting does not interfere with writing or writing abilities.
A few years back, there was some concern over the fact that texting may be affecting the writing composition of teenagers. John McWhorter from Times Magazine wrote, “Is Texting Killing the English Language” on this very phenomenon, with the rhetorical aim to persuade people that this wasn’t the case. In the article, McWhorter refers to historical texts to persuade his audience, middle-aged
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.
How often do we text? Text messaging is a very useful way to communicate; but, there are occasions where texting is unnecessary, for example in meetings, watching movies, interacting with family, and even in the shower. However, while texting can be overused, it can also help us get to know one another in easier and faster ways. In Natalie Y. Moore’s article “The Rule of Thumbs: Love in the Age of Texting," she explains how the use of texting it is slowly destroying the love between two people (Moore, 1). Although, some people might agree with Moore points of view, when she argues that texting is killing romance and it should be reserved for some notifications, such as “I’m running late;” others might disagree with this idea
The article “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” by Nicholas Carr, “The net is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” This makes sense to me, a teen living in the technological age. Thanks to the internet, information can be acquired at rapid speed, making teens have less of an attention span. We expect to find information so quickly, that when we don’t, we give up. That means our natural skills are being stripped away from us due to the internet and technology. “The New Literacy,” by Clive Thompson explains how kids are losing their ability to write. “Facebook encourages narcissistic blabbering, video and PowerPoint have replaced carefully crafted essays, and texting has dehydrated language into ‘bleak, bald, sad shorthand’.” This piece of evidence makes sense. On a daily basis, texting and its language is a skill that’s always being sharpened by adolescents. After a long spring break of texting and spending time on social media, personally, turning right around and writing an essay becomes a challenge. The world of texting and regular dialogue is vastly different. Because we spend so much time on social media, our capability to compose pieces of writing has
“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.
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
Texting is killing language,” Ted starts off the video by saying that “The idea is that texting spells the decline and fall of any kind of serious literacy, or at least writing ability, among young people in the United States and now the whole world today (Ted, 2013). Throughout the film discussion, what stuck out to me the most was how drastic language has changed via technology.
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?
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.
Firstly, it is very common for people to believe that Social Media has had a negative impact on the use of language by teenagers . This is because of a variety of reasons. The first being that communicating online is almost like a 'mid-ground between spoken language and written language for communication' [1] The term used for this is 'written-speak' or 'spoken-writing' [2] If young people are continuously using this form of communication, it may have severe ramifications on young people’s communication and literacy skills, as it can lead to the learning of...
Penelope Trunk said, “the type of writing that students do--via IM, Twitter, Facebook, and so forth-- is actually great for building communication skills” (Trunk 2). The reason behind communication skills being built through social media is our generation is practicing with our reading, and writing constantly while on social media. “The fact that students today almost always write for an audience gives them a different sense of what constitutes good writing” (Thompson 2). Our generation has a diverse audience of people that “likes” what we post, making it tempting to come up with a status or post that is well written and appeals to the audience. No matter if it’s an debate, opinion, or planning something with a friend, social media has made us adapt to writing for an audience of different people that we want to impress. It has also helped the generation with code switching, because based on the intended audience we have adapted to making changes in the way we communicate to appeal to a person or group of people. Verbally, our generation takes the skills learned from social media and speak the way they type on social media, appealing to whoever is listening to