Text Messaging Affecting Teen Literacy

Text messaging is the central structure of communication for teennagers. While teens may think shortcuts are helpful they may not understand the damage they are doing to their writing. While older generations consider it to be degrading to the English Language, over half of teens have come to the conclusion that texting has made their writing inapplicable. Although to some teens, shortcuts and proper English can still be effective. Researchers show that text messaging has been proven to have a negative effect on society, and to the English Language. The generations before us did not have phones that allowed them to text back and forth as a form of communication. This means that they actually had to call each other, which teens hate to do these days. Adults have come to find their teens using heavily abbreviated words ,or shortcuts in their text messaging. These abbreviated words include: “LOL”, “BRB”, and shortcuts for one letter words such as “R”. Sadly, teens see no wrong in using this kind of …show more content…
Teens can not seem to keep shortcuts, and informal writing out of their papers. They text with all different kind of mistakes and errors, by repeating this it becomes a hard habit to break and to fix. This research has shown statistics of the percentage of teens who have recognized their writing to be unacceptable. This type of ‘text language’ is degrading to the English Language and to teen literacy. It does not just affect teens but also everyone around them. Older generations should look down on this because this generation of teens are going to soon be a part of the decisions that are going to affect America. Teens may not understand the full effects until it is too late and they can not fix it. Literacy and proper english means everything in this day and time. Over time this problem can be fixed and formal papers can go back to their original