Blog post 1:
John Humphreys thinks that the OED has let him down by modernising. It’s done this by removing the hyphen from over 16000 words he describes that he finds it daft that we ‘don’t have time to reach for the hyphen key’ as its only one tiny key stroke. He feels that text speak is pointless and doesn't save time as ‘the recipient of the message has to spend ten minutes trying to translate it’. He thinks that the text speak of the new generation is ruining the English language and taking over and eventually people won’t know how to speak the English language properly without ‘grotesque abbreviations’. In summary he is saying that text speak, abbreviations and the lack of punctuation in text messages is destroying the language.
Blog post 2:
Like the first blog post from John Humphreys, John Sutherland also has a negative view on the world of texting. He describes texting as ‘snot talk’, it’s disposable. He recognises that texting is very much a European fad and that America is slower on picking up on the craze of SMS. He describes texting as ‘penmanship for illiterates’ and claims the reason it is so popular is that it hides mental laziness, quoting ‘wood-headed educationalists’. In his eyes text language is ‘bleak, bald, sad shorthand’ implying that no emotion at all can be conveyed by the ridiculous abbreviations being made within text language. He likens the younger generation and texting to chimps with banana phones, creating a negative image for the reader to support his argument. In the conclusion he agrees with Roger Fischer, who wrote History of Writing’ in that writing is becoming ever more defined as more people are able to, and are, writing.
Blog post 3:
Unlike the first two blog posts, David Crystal has a much more positive outlook on the notion of texting. He believes that texting is good thing, it generates billions of money each year and that it could even improve literacy ability in young people. Instead of believing like the first two blog that it is a completely different language to the oxford English dictionary language, he believes that it simply adds a new dimension to it. He claims that the media have over exaggerated the way in which teenagers text and that we don’t actually use that many abbreviations, as previously though by other articles/media. Using facts he shows the reader that abbreviations and conventions typically linked to text speak were around long before mobile phones were, some common ones, like IOU, having been around since 1618. It’s just that since texting has been invented, they have become more widely used and known. A poem shown in the article demonstrates that not only young people use abbreviations, as it was written all in text speak, with the typical shortened words and Z’s added on the end of words instead of S’s, when in fact it was a women in her late 60’s that wrote and entered the poem into the competition. In conclusion he states that text speak is not deteriorating the English language or ruining it, but is simply a way in which it is evolving and diversifying.
What is your opinion on text speak? Has it had a negative effect on language? How do you text?
My opinion is that text speak is not ruining the English language but I don’t see much point in a lot of the abbreviations used. I don’t find that it saves time when typing as the younger generation are so used to typing on phones and keyboards, that their key strokes are fast anyway, so adding a few extra letters won’t make a lot of difference in the time it takes to type a message. As for punctuation I don’t feel that punctuation is needed at all times so long as the message is still decipherable easily. I have often found that more punctuation is used in texting, for example the over enthusiasm when pressing the exclamation mark button or the question mark. Overall I think that texting is a good invention and it makes communicating with people a lot easier as it is cheap, quick and you can text people anywhere in the country, or another if you’re willing to spend the international rates! It’s easy to access and get hold of people and doesn't take up your whole attention so you can multitask, where as a phone call does. Many of the people who use abbreviations are able to use proper, grammatically correct English as well, as we are taught it in all lessons at school, it’s just that we choose not to some of the time when communicating over the internet. The way in which I text, I do not use a lot of abbreviations, but I can see why people do. I have noticed a lot of time that the older generation, such as parents use more a more shorthand language than me or my friends do. I think this is because they are not as used to texting as they didn't grow up with it so it they are not as quick at it, so the abbreviations do save them time.
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