It's That Damn Phone

With the constant evolution of the English Language over time, it was inevitable that with new technology would come a new way of speaking- especially for the younger generations. As always anything that's not as its always been will upset a few of the 'old fashioned' people intent on preserving the language that they know.

The best example of the language changing with the use of technology is 'text speak'. Most people who have social medias now a days will have seen or written words that have stemmed directly from the use of mobile phone texting. Older phones had a lengthy and irritating way of getting the letter you needed and without the use of the ever-helpful auto-correct we of course found a way around this. Words like 'your' got shortened to 'ur' and phrases like 'be right back' became 'brb' - initialism; pronouncing the first letter of a group of words separately. Although it’s now much faster to text and we have the capability- a lot this 'text speak' remains present in online posts and conversations. I think this new way of communicating can be creative and often amusing- especially when a new abbreviation or words appears, and you have to figure out what on earth it means.

There are many arguments that 'text speak' or 'textisms' are decreasing the literacy skills of children and many complained of seeing abbreviations or made-up-words in young people’s writing in exams. However, in an article in the Telegraph there was a study done on the effects of using phones and texting on the children's literacy abilities. They found that it actually improved and assisted their abilities. I for one usually know how to actually spell the words I abbreviate but choose not to as whoever will receive/read it will know what I mean. This seems to be the case with a majority of people. It’s the same with missing out apostrophes- it's lazy definitely but no-one ever corrects something like that in a text. 

 I don't believe that our language is being ruined at all by technology and it’s been proven in many cases that technology- influenced young people are just as literate as our elders. Language is progressive and of course with something as huge as the rapidly increasing use of technology- texting and social media- we would somehow be affected.