How Texting Is Wrecking Our Language Analysis

Improved Essays
How Texting Is Wrecking Society
In modern times, texting is a huge part of our society. But it has changed how people communicate for better or for worse. Author John Humphrys, explains in his passage “I h8 txt msgs: How Texting is wrecking our language”, how society is changing because of texting. The main arguments in his passage is “They are destroying it: pillaging our punctuation; savaging our sentences; raping our vocabulary. And they must be stopped.”(Humphrys, 482). I agree with his argument because I feel that people get lazy with punctuation due to the informality of texting, sentences get shorter because of emojis and short phrases, and our vocabulary is declining because of the auto generated phrases text when you send a text message.
…show more content…
I feel that this is because most people have ditched there landlines and switched to the day and age of a quick text message. The informality includes the omission of words and shorting of words such as “see u l8r” or “gtg”, because it is naturally quicker than typing out a full word.Next, initialism is used frequently or emojis are used in the place of words. Initialisms are short phrases such as “gtg” meaning “got to go” or “On my way!” which means on my way. Humphrey's says “But can that be anymore irritating than those little smiley faces with which texters litter there messages” (Humphrys, 483). Humphrey's is referring to emojis. Emojis are small digital icons that are used in place of words. For example, there are “smiley face” emojis, food emojis, and every expression you could thing of. These are easily used in place of words. Finally, many meetings and appointments are made over text messages. I think this is because of the decrease use of landlines and the increase of the quick text message. It seems that everyone from young kids, to older people are glued to there phones and hooked to the informality of

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    172-173). I support Crystal’s argument. Texting has been a part of my life, as well as my peers’ and family members’ since I was in elementary school, and not once have I witnessed abbreviations or other “text language” in anything but text messages. It is rare that I even see “text language” in text messages. This is likely due to the change in technological times.…

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    She constantly uses words like anywhere, quick, easy, and convenient, which help convey that texting has become a more efficient way of communicating rather than face-to-face contact. She uses the situation of using texting in business and just standing in line to help show the efficiency of texting as well. She also uses…

    • 1643 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As technology advance, so does our way of communicating. In Michaela Cullington’s “Does Texting Affect Writing” Cullington answer the effects of textspeak, a language used in texting that is often composed of abbreviation, acronyms, and emoticon. In her essay, she addresses the concerns, her experimentation, and findings on the effects of textspeak. Using several rhetorical contexts: logos, pathos, and ethos, Cullington puts forth a convincing argument against textspeak impacting formal writing negatively.…

    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Michaela Cullington’s essay, “Does Texting Affect Writing?”, discusses three hypotheses on whether texting carries a negative, positive, or no effect in academic writing. While she was undergraduate student at Marywood University, she wrote this essay in 2010 in response to the bias held by teachers, authors, and students on the effects of texting. Perhaps during the year of 2010, the significant increase of texting led her to write this article. Because technology and electronics perpetually keeps on upgrading and updating its efficacy up until today and texting is increasing its popularity among young adults, this topic is relevant for her readers. As an undergraduate student and a frequent texter myself, I can clearly perceive where Cullington…

    • 1433 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Texting is meant to be quick and convenient and not used like the way we write…

    • 1080 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In John McWhorter’s TED Talk “Txting is killing language. JK!!!” he asserts that despite what many believe, texting is not, in fact, killing the written language. McWhorter concludes that texting is akin to the written version of casual speech. That rather than replacing formal writing it’s like new dialect, simply diversifying the complexity of language.…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Texting isn 't exactly the language of the century, it’s not seen in equal respects to even the least intricate communication techniques. Since its creation, texting has grown in popularity and in ease of access. Slang words, a revamped view on the use of abbreviations and the pound sign have become more than a shortcut, John McWhorter introduces the idea of texting as an advancement in language. Just the same as the transformation of any language, such as Latin texting has entered that stage that is just one in the same, according to the argument by John McWhorter.…

    • 1498 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Txtn or texting Michaela Cullington’s article entitled “Does Texting Affect Writing” presents an argument against the way we write and the way we text. The article argues that as often as we text and the way we text changes the way we write. The position that the writer takes on in this issue is exaggerating the effects that texting has on our life by stating in the beginning of his article, “its taking over our lives” (Cullington, 791). The thesis states “it has become a concern of doctors, parents, and teaches alike.…

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It seems that I find myself communicating more over text then over the phone. Although texting and the language that we use with it, “textese”, has become so commonplace in our society, many teachers fear and loathe its use (Huang, 2015). Judith Gillespie, who is a member of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council goes so far to state, “there must be rigorous efforts from all quarters of the education system to stamp out the use of texting as a form of written language so far as English study is concerned” (Craig, 2003). There seems to be growing concern that text messaging is leading to a general decline in literacy skills (Drouin and Davis, 2009). Lily Huang writes in her essay “The Death of English (LOL)” that the opposite is true.…

    • 1019 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When texting, the point is to get a quick message across, unlike a formal essay which takes a lot more time and effort. If one starts putting that much time and effort into a text message, it defeats the purpose. Students know the differences and if there ever is a small mistake in an essay, it is just that: a mistake. Cullington’s research also proved that teenagers rarely use abbreviations.…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Daily interactions and communication with other people is beginning to decline. Is technology, such as cell phones and computers to blame? Michaela Cullington author of “Does Texting Affect Writing?” wanted to find out if formal writing was declining because more and more young adults are on their cell phones or computers. She interviewed a group of people that did agree that texting was ruining student’s formal writing. The concerns showed a shocking number that “Only 25% of high school…

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A trend incited by social media empires Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter, Crystal says, omitting the period soon became a social norm. In addition the usage of abbreviations such as “lol”, “rotf”, etc., has been increasing in usage due to these social media trends. Instead of saying “yes” or “okay” while texting, students, in a study conducted by Dr. Crystal, tended to say “yeah”, “sure”, or “yup”. Bilefsky concludes this article by saying that soon the question mark will lose popularity in an effort to show how bad the situation really is.…

    • 322 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Some teachers think that texting helps "foster the ability to summarize and express oneself concisely" (Cullington, 2010, p. 4). Another odd statement that teachers are stating is that texting “inhibits good writing” (Cullington, 2010, p. 3). Many students that text and use social media are not forming complete sentences and are using inappropriate or negative words. Something that was discovered that is very bizarre is that teenagers have “created an entirely new language” (Cullington, 2010, p. 5). To think that English is still evolving to this day and has been perfected and changed for so many years and we as young adults can create a whole language is unfathomable.…

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When people apply for a job you cannot just text in an application and expect to get the job. People will not be ready for any sort of interviews or jobs that involve them holding a conversation with someone in person. People are getting too comfortable sitting behind their phones and computers that it has affected how they live their lives. They fear to be judged in person so they speak over text or email to somehow avoid this judgment.…

    • 1739 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imagine this: you are walking on the street, texting your best friend, and then an older lady is trying to get your attention. You are too involved on your phone, so you completely ignored her. People who are engaged with their phones on a daily basis are slowly failing to communicate with one another. In the TED talk by John McWhorter, “Txtng is killing language. JK!!!”, McWhorter discuses that texting signifies an evolution in how language is being written down in a different form.…

    • 800 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays