Txt Msg

Text messaging

“If we teach today as we taught yesterday, then we rob our children of tomorrow,” once said John Dewey. He is a wise man for understanding that the newer generation is adapting to a new way of learning. This new way is with the use of technology. It is everywhere a person turns and behind every corner. These days it is impossible to hide from technology. Some of the older generation has begun to climb on board and the handful that chose to stay behind has begun to be disgusted with the newer generation’s obsession with it. A common belief of the people who do not side with technology is that technology is destroying the English language through the short hand and abbreviations found in text messaging. This is not complete truth though. Technology is not ruining our English language with its text messaging shorthand, instead it provides as a tool to help students learn and express creativity. Before one can look into how it can help students learn, they must learn that it is not affecting the English language.

The people who believe text messaging is ruining the English language are under the misconception that the shorthand is the cause to this dilemma. They believe that the common use of abbreviating terms, sayings, and words are new to our generation. Abbreviation in general is no harm to the language. Shortening a word from message to ‘msg’ or month to ‘mth’ has never hurt any one’s ability to write. If this were the case, then we would have many generations with the lack of ability to read and write. This is because, unlike the people anti-text messaging, abbreviation is not new to the English language. Abbreviations have dated back many years. It is stated in David Crystals “2Bor not 2B?” that abbreviations are not something new. He states, “Eric Partridge published his Dictionary of Abbreviations in 1942. It contained dozens of SMS-looking examples, such as agn “again”, mth “month”, and gd “good” – 50 years before texting was born” (191). If...