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The influence of technology in today's youth
The effects of text messaging to the students literacy
The effects of text messaging to the students literacy
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Majority of people in developed countries own smart phones that have the ability to send and receive text messages. Texting, short messaging services, has existed since the early 1990s and today, 64% of teenagers in the United States participate in texting. Psychologists from various universities such as Coventry University and University of Tasmania have composed studies to establish if texting does, in fact, have an affect on literacy. Texting and literacy have been shown to be linked in these various studies and articles. Today, literacy refers to the “ability to decode information in various orthographic formats, including digital media, to make meaning from it, and to encode information into those formats to communicate ideas to others” (Vosloo 2009). The digital age presents a paradox, but research has been conducted to determine if texting either positively or negatively affects literacy. Although some researchers, believe texting is not real writing, texting does in fact positively affect literacy rate through reading tests, selling tests, and reading efficiency tests.
To elaborate, texting does in fact improve literacy rate in people. Many test results have provided significant evidence such as a professor at Coventry University, Clare Wood. Wood writes in her article “We are now starting to see consistent evidence that children’s use of text message abbreviations has a positive impact on their spelling skills” (Woods 2010). Clare Wood explains that results of an actual study she conducted involving children ages nine to ten years old. Wood states that there is evidence that determines texting does have a positive relationship to literacy, spelling, etc. Additionally, Graeme Paton, an education editor, stated “The use of...
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...that does not mean that research needs to come to a screeching halt. This statement only means there is more research to be done to answer the research question. In conclusion, the solution to the debate of texting affecting literacy, the solution is preform more studies and collect more research.
Ultimately, our culture must realize that technology can either help or hurt us depending on how we interact with it. People know that texting could either help people improve their literacy or harm their reading, writing, and spelling. Texting can actually benefit people in many ways by improving their comprehension and language. In conclusion, us as a generation of technology need to allow technology to assist us, but we cannot let it overtake us. In conclusion, texting can positively affect literacy as seen through tests and studies done by people around the world.
Michaela Cullington, a student, wrote a paper “Does Texting Affect Writing?” in 2010 for an English class. The paper is an examination of texting and the belief that it negative effective student’s writing. Cullington goes into detail about textspeak- “language created by these abbreviations”- and their use in formal writings. She organizes the paper in a way that is confusing to understand at first (pg. 1). At the end of the paper, she discusses her finding in her own research which comes to show that texting does not affect writing. But this is contradicting to the information she received from the teachers. The students and the teachers were seeing differences in the use of textspeak in formal writing. Cullington has good support for her
A few years back, there was some concern over the fact that texting may be affecting the writing composition of teenagers. John McWhorter from Times Magazine wrote, “Is Texting Killing the English Language” on this very phenomenon, with the rhetorical aim to persuade people that this wasn’t the case. In the article, McWhorter refers to historical texts to persuade his audience, middle-aged
Numerous studies have shown how texting can actually improve our literacy skills. In the article “2b or Not 2b” by David Crystal, he believes that is a new form of communication and will not harm our language in any way. He states that a study has proven people who use a lot of abbreviations in their text messages tend to score higher on reading and vocabulary test. According to David Crystal, to be able to write well the first thing you have to know is how letters relate to sounds throughout each language.
Clive Thompson asserts in his essay, The New Literacy, that people today are writing more than ever as they socialize online. Nowadays, almost everybody uses social media, but it is more popular amongst younger people. Teenagers text and tweet every little thought that pops up in their head. However, numerous scholars can argue that texting and tweeting defiles the serious academic writing with slang and “text speak.” By way of contrast, Thompson claims that using shortened language and smileys online does not degrade a person’s abilities to write well in an academic paper. Furthermore, composing texts and tweets online can help an individual with their writing. By communicating online, we are able to learn grammar and writing through our own
The article “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” by Nicholas Carr, “The net is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” This makes sense to me, a teen living in the technological age. Thanks to the internet, information can be acquired at rapid speed, making teens have less of an attention span. We expect to find information so quickly, that when we don’t, we give up. That means our natural skills are being stripped away from us due to the internet and technology. “The New Literacy,” by Clive Thompson explains how kids are losing their ability to write. “Facebook encourages narcissistic blabbering, video and PowerPoint have replaced carefully crafted essays, and texting has dehydrated language into ‘bleak, bald, sad shorthand’.” This piece of evidence makes sense. On a daily basis, texting and its language is a skill that’s always being sharpened by adolescents. After a long spring break of texting and spending time on social media, personally, turning right around and writing an essay becomes a challenge. The world of texting and regular dialogue is vastly different. Because we spend so much time on social media, our capability to compose pieces of writing has
The fastest growing form of communication in America’s society is texting. David Mercer brings up a valid argument about how the appearance of texting was not a slow process, parents never had an opportunity to experience texting so they have no way of teaching their children how to use it responsibly (Carter). Texting is so common it carries over into our everyday lives easily and at times becomes controlling. America’s society thrives on the conveniences texting provides us. While texting is fast and convenient it has numerous faults that affect our society mentally and socially. Texting can be beneficial as it simplifies our lives at times; however, there are numerous negative effects texting has on our society.
However, think about the evolution of literacy and the different ways in which children and people learn and retrieve information; this definition could also include interaction with the digital text. There is a wide range as to what counts as literacy such as blogging, social networking, emailing, digital storytelling, online chats and even shopping online just to name a few. Not everyone will agree with what counts as literacy, but if students are not enlightened on the many aspects of what could make them valuable assets in the future; that would be negligent. In Rich’s article digital literacy is being discussed which is the topic this response will focus on. Learning is not restricted only to the classroom. Just like books, the Internet can take you places, on advantages without having to leave home. Digital literacy can be beneficial with the proper guidance of teachers, educators and
In his article, Crystal claimed that texting helps children to be better at their spelling and writing and they tend to score higher on test of reading and vocabulary because of the abbreviations used in their messages. Although Crystal provides ample evidence that texting is not linked to a drop in linguistic standard, Penn State News entitled ‘No LOL matter: Tween texting may lead to...
In the article, “Does Texting Affect Writing?”, the author Michaela Cullington conveys her speculation that texting does not correlate to how students write formal essays. At the beginning of the article Cullington introduces the term texting and the convenience texting brings. Later expressing her concern that the texting language “Textspeak” is actually affecting students writing; then contradicts these views by using primary and secondary sources (news articles, books, her own surveys and research). In addition, she uses an anecdote to tell of her own experience with texting and writing. Together with other evidences and research put together, she uncovers the debate between textspeak and formal writing. On the basis of her research, she concludes that the state of texting does not interfere with writing or writing abilities.
It's taking over our lives. We can do it almost anywhere. What is it? It's texting! Texting is a reliable, easy and convenient form of communication that is most commonly used by, but not limited to millenials and those in the workforce. Many people use it as a way to express themselves as well. In Michaela Cullington’s article, “Does Texting Affect Writing?” she targets two different attitudes in relation to texting. Cullington explains that there is often an assumption that students who use abbreviations when they text, will bring those same abbreviations over to their formal writing pieces. Cullington then adds that the other attitude in relation to writing skills and texting insists that texting is harming student’s writing capabilities. Because of her research as well as experiments done by other colleagues of hers, it shows that
These major changes show in the classroom. Texting affects students in the classroom, and the teachers.
Text messaging has become a norm in our generation, as technology rapidly advances and gives way to more efficient forms of communication in a fast-paced world; and many are skeptical about the influence this new form of interaction is having on our society, especially with our younger generation. David Crystal, a professor at the University of Wales, writes “2b or Not 2b?” in support of text messaging. He insists, despite those who underestimate or negate the beneficial influence text messaging has on language proficiency, that “there is increasing evidence that [texting] helps rather than hinders literacy” and that the fairly recent form of communication has actually been around for a while and “is merely the latest manifestation of the human ability to be linguistically creative and to adopt language to suit the demands of diverse settings. In contrast, Jeffery Kluger argues in “We Never Talk Anymore: The Problem with Text Messaging” that text messaging is rapidly becoming a substitute for more genuine forms of communication and is resulting in difficulty among young peoples of our generation to hold a face-to-face conversation, engage in significant nonverbal expression, and ultimately build effective relationships with family, friends and co-workers. Both writers’ present valid arguments, however, my personal experience with text messaging has led me to agree more with Crystal’s view on the matter. Text messaging is indeed having a positive effect on society by making frequent texters primarily aware of the need to be understood, as well as offering betterment of spelling and writing through practice, and reinventing and expanding on a bygone dimension of our language through the use of rebuses and abbreviations.
You can say that overuse in texting is determination the way teens, students write formally in the classroom. Teens that spend most of their eyes on their phone has already created their own texting style. Now I am able to answer the question, how does texting affect teen literacy? Texting affects teen literacy because, text messaging does affect our grammar because, teens text like for example; “ttyl”, “gtg”, “wyd”. They find an easy way of texting rather than using the correct way. In order to get what they want done, we wanted to see and learn about the damage that texting can cause on teens and we did learn, we learned that it can affect our grammar, grades, and even your future in trying to get a job, your skills in so much more. I wanted to inform the teens about the damage that texting in short terms can do to you. Encourage them not to write in short term because, they are too
Drouin, M., & Davis, C. (2009). R U Txting? Is the Use of Text Speak Hurting Your Literacy?. Journal of Literacy Research, 44(1), 46-67. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?q=texting+spelling+grammar&id=EJ862013
Texting is killing language,” Ted starts off the video by saying that “The idea is that texting spells the decline and fall of any kind of serious literacy, or at least writing ability, among young people in the United States and now the whole world today (Ted, 2013). Throughout the film discussion, what stuck out to me the most was how drastic language has changed via technology.