A Positive Outlook For Social Media

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Continuous sharing has led to a need to quickly formulate a thought and send it out, grammatical errors and all. This is an issue that has gone on since the start of being able to send messages via online and through text messaging. I’ve come across three authors who share similar and different mindsets when it comes to texting and abbreviated communication. Some of these views offer a positive outlook for social media; they look at social networking sites and think how easily accessible it is to share and love the quickness of it. On the other hand, some look at it as the demise of the English language. Nonetheless, I will show three different viewpoints that, in their own ways, prove something about abbreviated communication. One author is Peggy Orenstein writer of “I Tweet, Therefore I Am”; she is an avid user of the social networking site, Twitter. One day she comes to a realization that what she shares may be unauthentic to whom she in as a person and how, possibly, social media, is blurring the line of her as a person and her persona (146-167). Then we have John Dickerson, who is a supporter of constant sharing on social media. When he loses his trusty journal where he documents everything in his life, he realizes that social media is no different then writing with pen and paper. He explains how he backs capturing something memorable at the moment in “Note To Selfie” (134-789). Lastly is an author who implements both the good and the bad of abbreviated communication in her article. Kris Axman correlates between the new language of teenagers and the reason for degenerate grammar in ‘ “r u online?”: The Evolving Lexicon of Wired Teens’ (134-668). You will see how the abbreviated form of communication is detrimental to the pro...

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... to be split right in half when it comes to negative and positive. For some you can spend all day on social media using different slang and when it comes to homework assignments, or any type of work it’s easy to transition to correct grammar. It seems that the negative impacts on people at a young age only get worse as they go through school. Once you stop using commas, apostrophes, semi-colons, colons, correct word choice, or correct spelling, you start to believe that what you are using, the abbreviated communication is the accepted and correct vernacular, when it is far from it. As human beings, we find ways to make things easier or shorter, and through trying to find a solution for faster communication, we are left with students who are failing to understand the difference between, “Lets eat Grandma! and Let’s eat, Grandma!” all due to abbreviated communication.

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