My Essay Point

How texting is ruining the English language?

It is not at all surprising to see today’s young minds engulfed in their mobile phones the entire time. In fact, it is being said that young people these days have more communications through texting than they would talk to an individual face to face!! Sad but true!! This increasing habit of texting has raised concerns among the parents, teachers as well as some young people regarding the constant exposure they are having with this non- standard form of English language which is used while texting. People who are used to texting are often seen using more shortcuts. They would obviously prefer writing “people” as “ppl” and much more!

Talking about how texting is ruining the standard English language, it is to be noted that a major strata of our society today which makes use of cell phones for texting consists of majority of youngsters. These young people belong to the age group when they are probably still in schools and colleges. The major concern here is that these shortcut spellings used by them can easily creep into their formal writing styles as well.

Another factor which is a potential risk of over- texting is the avoidance of English grammar. Yes, often we have seen that people who text profusely ignore capital letters, there are no commas and apostrophes and hyphens are these days nowhere to be seen itself! Above all this, sentences written during texting are never ended in the way we are taught in schools; rather there are either multiple punctuation marks (…) or the sentences abruptly end with an emotion (J :P) or a laughing expression (rofl, lmao, lol, etc.)

The major risk here is faced by the younger children who will simply look at texts saying “m coming” and perceive that it is the easiest as well as right way to write. Young minds are very impressionable and with poor grammar and literally no communication skills being shown in texting, these minds will surely end up using these shortcuts and emoticons for the rest of their life, which in itself is a shame to the English language.

In fact, texting has managed to develop its very own grammar and dictionary of words over all this while. Take the example of the phrase “LOL”. People these days are seen making use of LOL literally at the end or in the beginning of a sentence without it having much contribution to the topic or the context of the writing. What arises from this informal texting ways is mere confusion. While some people may interpret “LOL= Laugh Out Loud”, others may feel that it stands for “Lots of Love.” When used in its abbreviation form, it may be ambiguous for an individual to decode its real meaning in the sentence.

Obviously no one ever thinks about this issue and with time, the true meaning of words and phrases will drift away!

Everyone must remember that civilization is necessary but when it comes to talking with your fingers, remember that you will gradually start speaking what you are texting today!!