As a total word nerd, I love all things related to English language: spelling, grammar, syntax, punctuation, and, of course, word play. Even when it comes to text messages, Im a stickler for proper punctuation, and tend to shy away from the use of popular abbreviations like LOL. But, being the grammar geek that I am, I often question whether or not text messaging and the use of social media platforms like Twitterboth of which have a character limitare impacting the way we, as a society, are writing. Whats fair to expect these days given the prevalence of abbrevs and acronyms like BTW? In a digital age that often relies on brevity, is there room (literally and figuratively) for good grammar? Or are people forgetting how to write and/or speak in proper English?
This awesome infographic from OnlineSchools.com proves that texting is on the riseand it doesnt look like its going anywhere anytime soon. (That said, more and more people are communicating with emojis these days, so who knows?) A reported 15 million text messages were sent per minute in 2011, and that number is likely on the rise, especially among teens and tweens.
Certain studies argue that theres no link between poor grammar when texting and actual grammatical understanding, but in one survey, two-in-three teachers reported they regularly find text-speak in students homework. In fact, a college professor friend of mine recently received an email from one of her students that not only contained all lower-case letters, but also used u instead of you. A different student approached her during a final exam to ask what a paragraph was, and then wanted to know why he couldnt make a bulleted list instead of using full sentences. Its stories like these that make me nervous for the future of the English language. There are, of course, plenty of students who write beautifully and manage to shift seamlessly between text-speak and proper English. But is that the exception or the rule these days?
What do you think, readers? Wed love to hear your thoughts on whether or not texting is hurting the English language.
Image via Jason A. Howie
