Texting May Not Be So Bad After All

The bane of English teachers across the country, cell-phone texting may get a reprieve, according to a report in New Scientist magazine.

Texting on mobile devices may be good for students.

The scientific journal claims that the limited character allotment, among other factors, forces the “writer” to think creatively. It goes on to explain that the popularity of text poetry is an example of how texting and cyber-slang can be beneficial.

“There's no evidence that texting damages writing skills; on the contrary, academic studies—as well as creative phenomena such as text poetry—indicate that texters can actually be talented writers,” NS claims. “In any case, texting isn't as innovative as you might think. Abbreviations are hardly new, and a highly text-associated word like “wot” dates from 1829.”

The charge against cyber-slang has been well documented with teachers, parents and business leaders all taking a stand against the practice. They claim that quick abbreviations and seemingly nonsensical syntax will hurt young people when they enter the workforce, where they must be able to write more formally.

“I think it makes sense for these social conversations to be light-hearted in terms of the syntax,” said President of Dictionary.com Shravan Goli. “But ultimately, in the world of business and in the world they will live in, in terms of their jobs and professional lives, students will need good, solid reading and writing skills. I’m a little worried about where we are in America with literacy levels dropping. Are these [electronic devices] helping us, or making it worse? I think they may be going the other way and making it worse.”

Yet many still champion the benefits of texting. Among them is David Crystal, about whom Newsweek ran a September 2011 article.

“David Crystal's ‘Txtng: the Gr8 Db8’ (Oxford) makes two general points: that the language of texting is hardly as deviant as people think, and that texting actually makes young people better communicators, not worse. Crystal spells out the first point by marshaling real linguistic evidence. He breaks down the distinctive elements of texting language—pictograms; initialisms, or acronyms; contractions, and others—and points out similar examples in linguistic practice from the ancient Egyptians to 20th-century broadcasting. Shakespeare freely used elisions, novel syntax and several thousand made-up words (his own name was signed in six different ways). Even some common conventions are relatively newfangled: rules for using the oft-abused apostrophe were set only in the middle of the 19th century. The point is that tailored text predates the text message, so we might as well accept that ours is a language of vandals.”

Article by Jason Tomaszewski, EducationWorld Associate Editor
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