I H8 TXT MSGS Kiera

I H8 TXT MSGS: HOW TEXTING IS WRECKING OUR LANGUAGE

John Humphrys

Society today depends on our computer for Internet, phones for texting, and other electronic device too much. We now are constantly attached to our cell phones and this has caused a dramatic change in our English language. Dictionaries have always been a useful source to pick up if you are having a problem with spelling a word or trying to figure out what it means. Once you find the specific word you have been looking for you then become curious and you read a few words around it, and that then causes you to widen your vocabulary by learning a few new words. The problem with this today is that instead of taking the time to go find a dictionary and look up the word we simply grab our cell phones or computers and look up the word on the Internet. Over the past few years we have created a new edition of the dictionary and we have began to discover that there has been around 16,000 words that has had the hyphen removed from them. The reason behind the loss of the hyphen is that we have started to change how we communicate with each other. Searching for the hyphen key on a cell phone or computer just takes too much time so we have begun to leave it out. Texting has begun to destroy the English language and the way we talk to others. Another big mistake that has happened over the course of the last few years is punctuation. Hardly ever do you read a text message it has the correct punctuation marks. This is another big issue that is hurting us. The economy has began to be on the texters side of this. It is a lot cheaper to simply send text messages instead of picking up the phone and calling someone. It’s sometimes convenient to simply send a short message because you don’t have time to call someone and possibly spend an hour on the phone with them. If you are texting you should at least spend a few more seconds and make sure you are constructing your messages correctly before you send them or one day you will suffer. Our computers and cell phones are starting to get on the level of SMS (short message service) texting and instead of typing the whole word it automatically shortens it for you. Smiley faces and other emojicons are starting to appear as soon as you type a colon, dash, and brackets. Some cell phones are even programed to shorten words such as thank you, by the way, on the way, tomorrow, laugh out loud, etc. Texting and modern English have became two completely opposite languages and that is starting to destroy how our language will look in the near future. English is supposed to be an adaptable language for all across the globe. In my opinion it seems like today that we depend too much on electronic devices to assist us with everything we do such as writing letters. Now it is too difficult to simply grab a piece of paper and a pen and write to someone. Instead we grab our cell phones and either send someone a text message or an e-mail. Sometimes it’s a lot easier to send a quick message to remind someone about something but keep in mind about proper English and how eventually destroy your language. I sometimes catch myself falling into these bad habits but I can say that I have not completely destroyed myself to the “text-speak”.