By Jacqui Cheng | Published: April 25, 2007 - 01:44PM CT
"Who are you texting 50 times a day? "idk, my bff Jill?" That exchange comes from a new AT&T commercial for its unlimited text messaging add-on. But parents may not want to let their kids jump into limitless text messages just yet, as a recent report from Ireland's State Examination Commission (SEC) claims that text messaging has had a negative affect on young people's writing.
The chief examiner for the SEC looked at the state's exam results for 2006, according to the Irish Times, and wrote that text messaging affected the kids' use of phonetic spelling and punctuation (or lack thereof). "The emergence of the mobile phone and the rise of text messaging as a popular means of communication would appear to have impacted on standards of writing as evidenced in the responses of candidates. Expertise in text messaging and e-mail in particular would appear to have affected spelling and punctuation," the examiner wrote.
The length of the students' answers to exam questions have suffered as well, it seems. The examiner noted that students were "choosing to answer sparingly, even minimally, rather than seeing questions as invitations to explore the territory they had studied and to express the breadth and depth of their learning and understanding."
However, it appears as if the examiner's complaints are merely based off of observation and some loose correlation between the quality of the students' work and the rise in text messaging's popularity. In fact, the comments appear to contradict recent research from the University of Toronto, saying that expertise in "IM speak," which is comparatively similar to that of text messaging, does not affect students' writing in any meaningful way. "Everybody thinks kids are ruining their language by using instant messaging, but these teens' messaging shows them expressing themselves flexibly through all registers. They actually show an extremely lucid command of the language. We shouldn't worry," said the study's author, Sali Tagliamonte.
So which is it? Is abbreviated, punctuation-less communication hurting the written language, or is it just another method by which kids can easily communicate with one other? Maybe a little bit of both, although parents probably don't need to be snatching away their teens' cell phones just yet. After all, that bff Jill may be helping their kids out with their English homework.
This is a pet peeve of mine. I loath short-hand, specifically those that does not have any purpose.
Back when I was 11-12 some 10 years ago I used to type like this, but that was largely the typing style back when I played FPS game everyday. Nowadays I find short-hand abhorrent. Not only that but the constant creation and fads of new acronyms online.
If someone cannot take the time to type something out correctly and instead relies on shorthand and a multitude of acronyms, I simply don't bother giving them any attention.
Steeples scrape the sky, Praising God.
Everything here exists for God, is sacrificed to God.
For those who have nothing to sacrifice,
It can be a very heartless city indeed.
I type in full in text messages, either on mobile phones or internet.
Personally, I hate short hand. I can never get what they're saying.
I don't think half the toilet seats in the world are as clean as I should like; and only half of those are half as clean as they deserve. - tsubaimomo, July 26, 2010 3:00 am
"We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then
blames them for his own mistakes." - Gene Roddenberry
Does that story say that a kid's text messaging (or in other words, an e-mail) is actually detrimental to his growth? Because that's hard to believe; they might use short-hand writing more often (even when they shouldn't), but that doesn't mean they don't know how to write well.
"Clearly my escape had not been anticipated, or my benevolent master would not have expended such efforts to prevent me from going. And if my departure displeased him, then that was a victory, however small, for me." - Raziel
I do believe that shorthand has an impact on the literacy skills. While they might write more messages as a result of shorthand writing, they're write less complete sentences. As a result, their spelling and punctuation will suffer. I have seen this in an assignment from a friend's brother who asked me to check it, and I have seen it riddled with 'u's, no full stops, some incorrect spelling, and so forth.
I have attempted to use shorthand at one stage, but it took me more time to think of the what the word would be in shorthand, and even more time to interpret it. I don't even use 'lol' anymore, and I thought it was one of those emoticons at the time when I first came into contact with it.
I don't think half the toilet seats in the world are as clean as I should like; and only half of those are half as clean as they deserve. - tsubaimomo, July 26, 2010 3:00 am
Yeah, you're right. While it doesn't actually hurt them to write short-hand, they're not exercising complete sentences so it does impede some growth.
I never got used to using acronyms or other lingo, except when I used to play Phantasy Star Online; I didn't have a keyboard, so I was forced to write quickly or get killed by all the monsters, but that never formed part of my normal writing.
"Clearly my escape had not been anticipated, or my benevolent master would not have expended such efforts to prevent me from going. And if my departure displeased him, then that was a victory, however small, for me." - Raziel
Hah, when I played CS, I had to stop typing because I HAD to type in full, and those are the critical moments that I got headshot in. I can't force myself to type shorthand, the only thing I could bring myself to do was to omit punctuation.
And an additional 'heh' to my previous post. After reading it again, I noticed how riddled with mistakes it was. But seriously, I can't read shorthand, it might as well be recognised as another dialect.
I don't think half the toilet seats in the world are as clean as I should like; and only half of those are half as clean as they deserve. - tsubaimomo, July 26, 2010 3:00 am
Shorthand is something you do for yourself. Not for others. If you CAN type quickly using shorthand that's a useful skill - as long as you're not limited to gibberish messages. However, there's a reason we don't use it for communication: It's limited, if not standardized. And there's REAL shorthand that IS standardized, but it won't ever appear in a CS session - or in a kiddy forum, for that matter.
if you live in the uk you would know there is nothing to question about this. a few years ago it was even in the paper about people using "txt" shorthand on the end of secondary school english exams (~age 16) and getting fails
I have long been a facile user of the English language in various applications. I have written for a newspaper and have a long history of editting college papers, as Psi can attest. In my own experience, I have seen a loss of understanding and use of the English language in the written form. Students that seek my assistance these days hand me rough drafts that are almost unintelligible. They rely on short-hand, leet and street speak to articulate their thoughts and get quite bent out of shape when a professor has the audacity to take points off even though he or she may indicate that they do in fact understand what thought is being conveyed.
Similar questions arose with the introduction of Ebonics and I can still see that influence on college writing today with similar outcomes. When the thoughts are A quality and the writing is not, it is a hard pill to swallow. Relearning the basic writing skill at the college level takes time that would be better spent on other subjects.
Whether it is an undermining due to lack of use or an actual movement toward economy, I could not say, but I have seen the effects at the college level.
I don't think this technology related language warping is a phenomenon limited to English. It's slightly different but I know that many Japanese kids (up to and beyond 30 even) really struggle to write Kanji these days. There are about 2000 in everyday use but they always type phonetically on their PCs and phones, which fill in the most appropriate kanji for them. So they don't need to know how to write, only how to read.
I can't argue that literacy levels aren't slipping but don't you think this kind of compression is an evolutionary step? As painful as it is to the well educated, it's a kind of progress, isn't it? And just think how abhorrent American English would've been to a cultured Brit two hundred years back. Of course we love it these days
I unfortunaley fall under the line of people who like to text message. It is great, in the fact that you can write a nice quick line off of something you need to say. Especially if you have an individual in your life who likes to talk to you almost everyday of every hour of every minute of the day whoms names will remain nameless But I do agree with the fact that over long time use of text messageing your grammer and english soon prove to make a run for the bad. I remember quit recently writing slang terms as asap " as soon as possible" on a written statement for college. Bottom line if you love your cell phone as many Americans do just try your best to limit your texts. For if you fail to do so dont be suprised when you start sounding like a robot and start writing like a four year old
Nuttz wrote:Especially if you have an individual in your life who likes to talk to you almost everyday of every hour of every minute of the day whoms names will remain nameless
I'm surprised that 'she who will be nameless' even allowed you the time to post here. Of couse, she is welcome to lurk and post here as well. Just avoid femto ire and she will be fine. =)
ps: I'll be back in fred this weekend I believe. We should all head out to poncho villa or something equally yummy and cheap.
But I do agree with the fact that over long time use of text messageing your grammer and english soon prove to make a run for the bad. I remember quit recently writing slang terms as asap " as soon as possible" on a written statement for college. Bottom line if you love your cell phone as many Americans do just try your best to limit your texts. For if you fail to do so dont be suprised when you start sounding like a robot and start writing like a four year old 
