Texting Language: A Threat or Evolution of English?

Critics claim that “texting language” is destroying English. Commonly, when people text they do not take advantage of proper grammar, and they will use shortcuts to write common words and phrases such as, “ you” and “are” by writing “U” and “R”. They claim that this makes people more likely to use poor grammar and spelling even in intense situations when eloquent writing is critical. However, texting was not meant to represent people’s mastery of language. It was meant to be split-second conversation and socialization over a distance.

At the inception of the evolution of written terminology, writing was exceedingly undeveloped, and only a small minority of the population appreciated its benefits. Writing gradually evolved to exhibit more sophisticated properties, and authors and writers became more deliberate and precise with their writing. An exemplification of this eloquent, perfected terminology originates from “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; “The whole engagement lasted above 12 hours, until the gradual retreat of the Persians was changed into a disorderly

Just as in vocal communication, text messages are quickly interpreted and do not need to be written out in a complete form, as they only need to convey the thoughts that they represent. Also, another important part of texting is that in times of urgency, help can be needed quickly and the person texting may not have time to write out and correct any errors they make. Another one of the ways where texting is most similar to vocal communication is that “shortcuts” in texting are most similar to the audible sounds that the words that they represent make. Such as, the word “you” makes a sound just like the letter “U” when said out loud. If you read out loud the phrase; “How R U,” it sounds just like the phrase “How are You”. As in this example, it requires less time to write the shortened version, and is just as easy to