Textisms and Literacy

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Texting: Textisms and Effects

Texting is one of the fastest growing containers of communication. According to Cellular Online, in only the first three months of 2004, 135 billion text messages were sent. The proof is in the numbers alone. With the explosion of texting, society is forced to keep up with the massive amount of changes in communication. Not only is texting affecting children's knowledge, but also texting brought the development of virtually a new language, textisms. Textisms are the intentional misspelling of words, any use of a shortened word, or acronyms in text messages. Textisms significantly differ from standard English language. Some researchers believe that textisms are detrimental, but other researchers disagree and believe textisms can be beneficial. In the academic journal UKLA, Beverly Plester, Clare Wood, and Victoria Bell explore the issues of texting abbreviations affecting children in the study “Txt msg n school literacy: does texting and knowledge of text abbreviations adversely affect children's literacy attainment?” Joe Huber also identifies with the idea of textism's effects in the article “Texting As Language: Evolution or Regression?” Textisms are a newly controversial issue that have peaked the interest of countless scholars and lead to a number of studies and articles.

Joe Huber addressed the issue of textisms in the article “Texting As Language: Evolution or Regression?” Huber makes a new claim that the use of textisms is not a new concept. Researcher has led many people to believe textisms can affect literacy negatively, but Huber

references 3400 BCE and the 1890s. In 3400 BCE, the Summerians used a type of writing called cuneiform. This style of writing was heavily based on pictures, ...

... middle of paper ...

...e amounts of information is knowledge. The more knowledge people have the more power. The use of text language is obviously not going away any time soon, so society must adapt. Text messaging is one of the fastest growing containers of

communication, and society shows no sign of letting up anytime soon. Only time will tell whether the effects of texting are positive or negative. Plester, Wood, and Bell have only scratched the surface in attempting to determine whether texting is detrimental or beneficial.

Neil 6

Works Cited

Huber, Joe. “Texting As Language: Evolution Or Regression?” Educator Studio. 01 August 2011. Web. 11 November 2011.

Plester, Beverly, Clare Wood, and Victoria Bell. “Txt msg n school literacy: does texting and knowledge of text abbreviations adversely affect children's literacy attainment?” UKLA 42. Number 3 (2008): 137-144. Print.

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