Thursday, October 31, 2019

Texting and Literacy


Texting and emailing are new social practices in everyday life as well as in the work place. With that becomes almost a new language of some sort. Adults have learned how to separate the texting language from formal language and communication skills in the workplace. According to Ashley Campbell, “ Many of those text messages that are sent often contain textisms. 

The use of textisms is starting to become more accepted among the younger generation. There have been suggestions from both media sources and educators that texting may have a negative effect on the literacy skills of students. Perhaps that biggest problem is that students do not distinguish between times when they need to write formally without using textisms, and when they are writing informally and the use of textisms is acceptable. With more long term studies on the same group of individuals, it may be possible for researchers to determine if the use of textisms does indeed have negative effects on literacy.” 
Children and teenagers some times struggle in this area and can become a hindrance to their writing and speak because of the abbreviations and codes that are used in texting and emailing. There is some research that says it has had a positive effect on communication in that it encourages students to engage and communicate with written language. Students need an opportunity to develop in multiple languages modes so that they are able to communicate and develop multiple literacies. 
“TIME” magazine claims that texting and other means of electronic communication have positive effects for introverted teenagers. Texting allows teenagers to say things they might be uncomfortable bringing up in person, helping introverts better reach out to others and express themselves. I believe that as long as students have the opportunity to express themselves through formal writing as well as informal then their communication skills won’t suffer.

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