Texting Effects On Spelling
While texting one of my friends I noticed that they were
shortening their words and using acronyms. At some points I could not even
interpret what the messages were saying. I started to notice that a lot of my
friends were also doing the same and wondered why they didn't just spell out the
words. Seeing how they wrote in the messages made me wonder if it affected their
spelling and grammar skills.
Today, technology is the most common way
people communicate with one another. It has been evolving for centuries. The
short amount of time it takes for a person to receive a message is incredible.
It is a very fast paced way of communication. Having such fast communication
with one another would be a reason why people are shortening their words. They
want to get their message to the other person as fast as they can and a way to
do that is to make your message as short as possible. Most text messages only
allow you to have 160 characters. Many people can not get a full thought out
with that much space. By using acronyms and abbreviating their words the meaning
of the message is lost.
Texting has become very popular among teenagers.
About 80% of teenagers text on a daily basis. Many of the people I surveyed
received their first phone between the ages 11- 15. They also started texting as
young as 11 and as old as 17. Teens have created a whole new language through
texting which researchers refer to as short message service (SMS) language or
textese. According to the article The Effects of Text Messaging by Anupam
Kathpalia about 40% of cell phone users actively use SMS language. Everyday
people are adding words to the language. Some of the SMS language includes lol
(laughing out loud), brb (be right back), idk (I don't know), and many other
words. There are many views on the effects of texting. Some people say that
texting has a negative effect, positive effect, or does not have an effect at
all.
Many people argue that SMS language is making people lazy and it is
destroying our language.They feel that it is negatively affecting people. When
asked why do you use acronyms and shortened words while texting Ivan Chong, a
freshmen at Arizona State University, replied "Sometimes I'm lazy". Dshawn
Coleman, also a freshman at Arizona State University, said "First it was because
I had to fit all my words into 160 characters. Then we had to use the number pad
to text which was annoying. Now it's because words are too long and phrases are
too common so it makes things easier". For Dshawn it seemed that there had been
many reasons why he was always shortening his words and using SMS language. Some
teachers say that texting only has negative effects. Students are writing papers
with poor grammar, bad punctuation, and inappropriate abbreviations. When
confronted by the teacher some students say that they do not notice that they
are using SMS language in their papers. Students are blending the SMS language
with the English language which is not good. Students are losing depth in their
writing because they are learning from texting that you can get your point
across just by using five sentences. Not always will it get the job done and
teens are forgetting about details.
Some people feel that texting is having
a positive affect on peoples spelling and grammar skills. Teachers say that any
writing that a student does is good for them. They are saying that they can use
this has an educational lesson by showing them the evolution of language from
Shakespearean English to internet English. Students are also able to type
messages without looking at the keyboard which is impressive. Some of the
students spelling and grammar scores have even increased but researchers are not
positive that it's due to texting. People think that by creating shortcuts and
new words show how creative a person actually is. It expands our language skills
and ingenuity.
As for people who say SMS language does not affect a persons
spelling skills, they say that every generation is creating a new language. By
learning a new language it should not affect the persons English grammar. Teens
and adults should know the difference between short message service language and
the English language. When sending a message they should know that they are
spelling words incorrectly. In my survey a question I asked was "Do you think
texting affects your literacy skills?". Stefanie LaPierre, a freshman at Central
Connecticut State University, response was, "No because for the most part you
text the way you speak". Roger McIlwain, a student at Johnson and Wales
University, responded to the question by saying, " I feel that my literacy
skills are effected because I know that there are two different ways I have to
write. When I'm writing in class there's a proper way to write and when I'm
texting I write however I want. I'm not going to write "lol" in a paper".
Having such diverse answers to the questions on my survey sort of shocked me.
Since I surveyed all teenagers I would've expected all the answers to be similar
but some people had very strong opinions. For the question, do you think texting
effects your literacy skills, someone responded by saying, "Yes. My phone auto
corrects my spelling so I never learn from my mistakes so my spelling is bad".
Today many people own phones that have auto correct as a function so if they do
misspell something or shorten a word it corrects it for them. By having auto
correct people don't get to go back and see the mistakes they made because it's
already corrected. People aren't learning from their mistakes so they aren't
improving their literacy skills.
During my interview with Robbie Jarrett
and Roger McIlwain I asked them what age they started texting. There was quite
an age gap between the two. Roger started at age 13 while Robbie started at age
16. After asking their age I asked Roger if he started texting at a later age
would his literacy skills be better than they are today and he said, "No only
because from personal experience I was a well rounded kid and most of that lingo
was not around then". I then I asked Robbie if he started texting at an earlier
age would his literacy skills be better than they are today and his response
was, "No they would probably be worse. I would always be reading text messages
and not paying attention to anything else". Both of them felt that it wouldn't
have mattered whenever they started texting, their skills would still remain the
same as they are today.
When I sent a text back to my friend asking them
why they couldn't just write the words out they said, " I don't know. It was
quicker to use an acronym. And I was lazy lol." This was the response that most
people would say if someone asked them. There are always new ways of
communication being developed so there is no doubt that a persons literacy will
be effected in the process whether it be good or bad.