The Texting Revolution

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Recommended: Interpersonal communication across cultures

Many people today will agree that communication has vastly increased on a global scale. People can send messages instantly through - what one could easily guess - instant messaging, schedule a meeting with a simple tweet or text, or even hold their own conference discussions simply from their cellular phones. This can be simply stated as this: communication methods are constantly changing, and with these changing communication methods also comes language changes. There are people who will go with the flow of the changing language, and there are those who cannot seem to let go of the old ways. John Humphrys is one of those individuals who cannot seem to let go of these old customs. He refuses to accept the fact that the language has changed since he grew up, and insists on causing disruptions and disputes about the slightest of changes with the language. He even argues that people are taking less time out from their oh-so-busy lives to even sit down and write a letter. Clive Thompson, on the other hand, acknowledges the change in the language and readily accepts the new languages. He goes with the flow of the majority and learns to communicate as the majority does; he does not get lost in old, dead customary ways of communication. He also argues completely against Humphrys and says that the “kids of today” write more than any kids before them ever have. There are also people who argue that because of the way children talk with texting lingo and instant messaging, their schooling is in jeopardy. They say that the way these children talk causes them to write with the informality that is found inside of a text or instant message.

One of Humphrys most ‘compelling’ arguments is his rant over the dropping of the hyphen. It takes him a...

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...look. Also, they usually do not save themselves very much time if the person they are texting does not understand the acronym. Whenever Humphrys said “I was baffled by IMGO U R GR8” (Humphrys, p 32), I thought to myself, “wow, you are very mature, in using an acronym that very few people understand in the first place, just to get your point across that you hate texting lingo.” My point is: texting and instant messaging – along with all other newer forms of communication – are not destroying the amount of writing that students are doing, and that communication also does not hinder the way that these students write.

Works Cited

Humphrys, John. "I h8 txt msgs: How texting is wrecking our language." Mail Online. 24 September 2007. Web. 18 December 2011.

Thompson, Clive. "Clive Thompson on the New Literacy." Wired Magazine. 24 August 2009. Web. 18 December 2011.

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