There are so many myths about language and the negative effects it has our society in general. Given that social media and technology now plays a relevant role in our everyday life, one such group that has become the subject of such myths are our young people. Very often, you will hear adults say that technology is destroying our kids. An adult might argue that this is evident in their attention span, their social skills, work ethics etc. From such a perspective it is believed that Media and texting are ruining language”; However, such opinion is not relevant if this idea is not observed through a different ideological lens, one that would argue that changes in our language i.e. texting, in particular, has introduced and allowed language diversity.
Throughout history, language has evolved from the period of ancient Mayan hieroglyphic to our times which include the use of laptop, cellphones, and tablets. The way in which a young person writes and speak has always been very important to our elders. The way that young people speak today, from the outside looking in one might assert he is not taught properly particularly judging how he commands the use of his language. Growing up it was always said that the way we speak is the way we write – language is spoken. With that in mind, parents always correct their child/children to ‘speak properly,’ so that they would not be perceived as unintelligent to the public eye whenever they speak.
According to John McWhorter in one of his YouTube videos “Texting is killing language” he says; “texting is fingered speech” (how we talk). In other words, with fingered speech, all the rules of language go out the window. There is no need to capitalize, punctuate, or check for spelling given that it is an informal way of communicating – texting is not writing. This is the way that young people along see texting as a way to not stick to the formal way of writing, especially after being in school for the whole day. This is their way of letting their way of relaxing. In todays society nobody really looks for proper English. (John McWhorter), (2013, April 22).
