Is Texting Good Or Bad?

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The benefits and drawbacks of texting have been debated about since texting began. It all comes down to one question: Is texting good or bad? The article “I h8 txt msgs: How texting is wrecking our language” by John Humphrys, explains why he dislikes texting. Another British linguist named David Crystal wrote the article “2b or not 2b” about the pros of texting. Joining his side is linguist John McWhorter in his Ted Talk he gave in 2013. They each have their own ideas about texting leading to poor grammar, changing the language, and the overuse of the use abbreviations . One popular belief about texting is that it leads to poor grammar. Humphrys claims that this is true. “(Texting is) destroying (the English language): pillaging our punctuation; savaging our sentences; [ravaging] our vocabulary.” (p.7, lines 55-57) On the other hand, Crystal believes that texting helps a child’s grammar. “The most important finding is that texting does not erode children’s ability to read and write. On the contrary, literacy …show more content…

Humphrys again agrees with this claim as he states: “....(Texting), Instead of aiding communication it can be a barrier”(p.9, lines 109-110). On the other side,both Crystal and McWhorter have something to say about this. “Abbreviations were used as a natural, intuitive response to a technological problem” (p. 21, line 172) explains David Crystal. We use abbreviations as a quick response. Because technology is so fast, we mimic the speed by creating short and sweet responses to answer the other person that we are texting. John McWhorter claims that “texting is fingered speech…(and) when we speak casually, we tend to speak in work packets of 7-10 words” (John McWhorter TED Talk 2013). So abbreviating words help to make the text messages like an everyday conversation and to understand what the other the other person is trying to

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