Evolution

Parents and researchers have been complaining continuously about texting. Stating that it is negatively affecting our youth, killing our cognitive skills. But what happens when we have a prestigious linguist state that that is not the fact. That is what you experience when listening to Linguist, John McWhorter's thirteen minute Tedx Talk.

https://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk

You may wonder why his opinion is valued, why do I care about how he believer that texting is a stage of evolution in our language rather than a negative affect. It is because not only has he majored in Linguistics at Universities such as NYU and Stafford. He is a professor at Columbia University, so in my personal opinion I believe his opinion is some what worthy of your attention.

He speaks of how language transforms, words develop new meanings and different functions. He connects this to the issue of texting, by stating that texting is a form of figure speak. He speaks very highly of it as well, stating that for years people of great calibers had the same issue. This issue being that nobody wrote the same way that they spoke, something that has been taught to our 21st century generation. And texting is the bridge, in text messaging we are able to text the way that we would have a conversation. Able to be informal and conversant in a more realistic manner. He speaks of words like "lol" which is used to show a gesture or to set a tone. An example of that from my daily routine includes "wya" it means "Where are you at?" it is something that I use everyday when texting my friends or girlfriend, however I would never send it to a teacher in a email or to my employer.

No matter how interesting the video is, the question is how does that effect me? Think about when you come back to school from summer break, you can barely construct a proper email. All that texting style you have been using.

Something so little is ignore but it shows that there is a difference. To keep myself in control I think about my setting and to who I am contacting someone. For example you can ask someone to study with you can be very different depending on the context on the relationship.

Text to a Friend: Wassup Fool, Way. Lets hit the library

Text to a person on superiority: Hello Mrs. Griffith, I was wondering if there was somewhere we could meet to review for our exam. If so, I am very thankful, and just let me know a time convenient to your schedule.

So with these things being stated, it is important to remember things like grammer, punctuation, words and socially accepted phrases. Why? In my opinion, because old boring literature is our common ground. People old and young have these basic ideas of what an essay should sound like. So we keep these old boring forms of literature so that we can communicate. Also If we began to talk how we text we would look dumb. Like imagine American ambassadors at International confrences talking about

"BRB(Be Right Back) Obama(Barack Obama) Gotta (Got to) handle this BS (Bullshit) tell the VP (Vice President) to HML(Hit my line/Call me)"

We would 1. Be laughed at and 2. Lose the respect and financial support of so many countries. Literature is an old craft we can't just get rid of for texting. Did we get rid of the Mona Lisa when Graffiti Art was discovered (No).