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Maka Edwards
Enc 1101
Professor McGriff
27 October 2016
No Damage Done By Texting or Social Media
Texting and social media have quickly become the more popular form of communication
in recent years. With it's sudden take over, these forms of electronic communication have created
a lot of controversy regarding their impact on our language and communication skills. Although
some people believe that texting and social media will cause the destruction of language as we
know it, I believe that texting and social media have merely increased our sociability and
vocabulary and hasn't negatively affected our communication skills. My reasons are: The
integration of text speak into daily lives is a natural evolution in language and is not a bad thing,
kids who use texting lingo have been proven to have a better understanding of words, the use of
abbreviation and shorthand has been around way before texting and social media, and texting has
little impact on the brains cognitive abilities, including language.
One point to consider is that the integration of text speak into daily lives is just our
evolving language and it does not damage our communication skills. Many people have the idea
that the use of text lingo will cause texters to forget words completely and or become
unaccustomed with the fundamentals of proper grammar. The truth is, It may well be the
opposite; An evolution in our language may be what is really occurring. In Ray William's article,
"FOCROFLOL: Is Texting Damaging Our Language Skills?", he states that, "Jesee Sheidlower,
principal editor of the U.S. office ... says that text messaging is going through the natural
progression of language... Carol Adger...agrees."(2). This quote by William introduces a different
element of texting to consider. The element being a stage and not an obstacle in our language.
After analyzing this idea, I believe texting and social media are very undamaging, even more
than I did before.

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Additionally, kids who use texting lingo have been proven to have a better understanding
of words. Some people argue that texting is a simple minded task and is only used by simple
minded people, but it is actually more difficult and requires a greater understanding about the
structure of words. For example, in David Crystal's article, "2b or Not 2b", he writes, "Children
could not be good at texting if they had not already developed considerable literacy awareness.
Before you can write and play with abbreviated forms, you need to have a sense of how the
sounds of your language relate to the letters."(906). I agree and believe that, logically, one really
does need an understanding of words before he or she can abbreviate them properly. With this in
mind, texting is more clearly a development in language rather than a detriment.
One should also consider that the use of abbreviation and shorthand has been around way
before texting and social media. People have argued in the past, as they do now, that the
manipulation of words is a bad thing in some way. Yet these same people have been using forms
of shortened language, which includes abbreviation, since over 50 years ago. According to David
Crystal in his article, "2b or Not 2b", "In texts we find such forms as msg ("message") and
xInt("excellent")...But this isn't new either...it contained a dozen SMS-looking examples such as
agn ("again")...50 years before texting was born."(903). This quote is explaining that similar textlike word manipulation has been around yet hasn't done any damage to our language. Because of
this, it is reasonable to say that history contradicts and exposes the fear of new communication
forms as a misguided view.
One last thing to consider is that texting doesn't have a connection to loss of language and
communication skills. Some like to argue that because texting is so simple, those who do it will
become dumb. But in terms of human psychology, the use of texting does not improve or
degrade the cognitive ability of the texter. For instance, in Steven Pinker's article, "Mind over
Mass Media", he responds to the argument that the experience of texting will change the mind in
a negative way, by saying, "Experience does not revamp the basic information-processing
capacities of the brain."(1030). From a logical perspective, what he is saying is correct. You
cannot change the physical capacity of your brain by merely experiencing things such as texting.

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If one wanted to hinder his or her mental capacity, they would have better luck banging their
heads against a wall, rather than texting.
As shown above, the use of texting and social media does not have a negative impact on
our language. In fact, these mediums expand our language and are simply a tool used for their
convenience. Therefore, one shouldn't fear texting or social media but embrace it as an outlet that
allows creativity in our own language. Also, one should realize that new forms of media just
means a new and interesting way to communicate with other people.

Works Cited
William, Ray. "FOCROFLOL: Is Texting Damaging Our Language Skills?" Psychology Today.
28 Jul. 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.
Crystal, David. "2b or Not 2b." Everyone's an Author. Ed. Andrea Lunsford, Micheal Brody,
Lisa Ede, Beverly J. Moss, Carole Clark Papper, and Keith Walters. Vol. 1. New
York:

W.W. Norton and Company. 2016. 899-911. Print.

Pinker, Steven. "Mind over Mass Media." Everyone's an Author. Ed. Andrea Lunsford, Micheal
Brody, Lisa Ede, Beverly J. Moss, Carole Clark Papper, and Keith Walters. Vol. 1.
New

York: W.W. Norton and Company. 2016. 1029-10319. Print.