Reorganization Project

Thank you for visiting my site, I am currently working on a reorganization project, so I will be a way for a few days. Feel Free to read some of my past writings.


FRESH

FRESH Perspective: What Happen to The Rules: Is Texting Destroying English?

Mary had a cell phone. She texted day and night. But when it came to her exams she’d forgotten how to write.”- John Humphry


I must admit before writing this FRESH Perspective that I am an adherent user of text messaging and instant messaging. Using these tools, has allowed me to communicate with people efficiently. In addition, most of my peers prefer to send text messages, rather then speaking on the phone. As well, I am not complaining about not talking on the phone, because this has allowed me to reduce the minute usage on my cell phone and save money.

However, what has led me to investigate the relationship between texting and inadequate writing skills is that individual within my peer group sometimes refuse to switch between Texting and Standard English. I understand that texting is a social language, which is used to communicate causally throughout the day with individuals.

I remember when I first started to text, I attempted to write my messages with proper grammatical sentences and punctuation. However, it did not take long before I realized that I could write faster without paying any attention to grammar 101(Thanks Clif Williams). No one else was attempting to write sentences with a subject and predicate, few even cared if they used the correct restrictive and non-restrictive clause, and I fell victim to just writing my messages as they came to my fingers. I replaced compound sentences with run on sentences that were ambiguous to the reader, and lacked the richness of complex communication.



Most of us have received a message like the following:

Idk if im goin r u I call u b4 I go

im gr8 wat r u doing 2day?

or my favorite

OMG SMH g2g ttyl ( Thanks Jasmine for teaching me what SMH meant…lol)

When I first begin to receive coded messages like the above, I would have to spend additional time trying to figure out what the messenger was trying to convey. Now I have a grips on this codified language used in text messages, but what happens when we go into our classrooms, workplaces, and write as well as speak, the way our text messages our written?

Although I have fallen prey to the social language of texting, I have made sure that this informal communication remains just that, informal. Nevertheless, what do we do with individuals that do not know how to compartmentalize the two worlds of writing? I am not suggesting that we be held accountable to grammar 101 in our texting, but I am worried that we are slowly forgetting why we have these rules.


This is the dissonance that makes me perplexed, because when do we put down the casual social language of text messaging, and apply the rules of Standard English? I am awestruck when I read even messages on facebook and on some blogs that are written too harsh for me to comprehend and follow.

Should there a difference in the standard of how we communicate privately in a text, and publicly on the World Wide Web? Some would argue that both of these are places of informality, but I would strongly disagree because what and how we write, has a reflection on us.




Some suggest that these subjective rules are in need of a revolution and texting is making us have this continuous conversation about whether texting is destroying the richness of the English language. But until we officially say “To Hell” with the rules, I think we should try publicly to write comprehensible and as far as privately, you be the judge.

FRESH