Twob Or Not 2b David Crystal Summary

As stated in the article, “2b or Not 2b” by David Crystal, some people believe that texting is not a natural form of communication and that it is wrecking our language. Although some people may agree with this idea, studies have challenged this opinion. Rather than fearing the consequences of texting, people should embrace this evolution and understand that this new form of communication may actually have benefits on literacy. This author once stated, “there is no evidence that texting teaches people to spell badly: rather, research shows that those kids who text frequently are more likely to be the most literate and the best spellers, because you have to know how to manipulate language.” The moral panic created by this form of socialization should be diminished, as people have the power and ability to shape our future. In a newspaper article, John Humphrys once argued that texters are “vandals who are doing to our language what Genghis Khan did to his neighbors 800 years ago. They are destroying it: pillaging our punctuation; savaging our sentences; raping our vocabulary. And they must be stopped” (335). Many people agree with this idea, and believe that texting is ruining the English language. This “digital virus” has resulted in consequences including dyslexia, poor spelling, mental laziness, and a mask for the penmanship of illiterates.
This noticeable feature, however, dates back centuries. Rebuses, or characters used to represent words, were being used in the 1600s, with the creation of IOU (I owe you). As discussed by David Crystal, there is no difference between S.W.A.L.K (sealed with a loving kiss), which was used in the war to shorten letters, and today's modern LOL (laughing out loud). Abbreviations have been created as a natural, intuitive response to what people have encountered in other