The Negative Effects Of Cell Phones

In the article “2b or not 2b”, David Crystal begins with discussing how others such as John Humphry argued that texters are “vandals who are doing to our language what Genghis Khan did to his neighbors 800 years ago. They are destroying it” (335). This is also the common belief of most people. People often argue about the bad points of technology over our language. However, Crystal believes that texting can improve children’s ability to read and write rather than hinder their literacy as many people claim. He also argues that not all texting are done in abbreviated words. Complex messages and institutional messages are often texted in standard form of

In Michaela Cullington’s essay titled, “Does Texting Affect Writing?” the author tests the ongoing question of how today’s youth handles the effects of texting in the education system. Using successful evidence from both sides of the argument as well as participating in her own experiment, Cullington is able to fully demonstrate how texting does not interfere with today’s students and their abilities to write formally in the classroom.

Michaela Cullington’s essay “Texting and Writing” explores the possible effect of teen texting on formal writing in school. Cullington lists three different hypotheses scholars pose about the cor- relation between the two: those who criticize texting for its negative impact on writing, those who believe texting is actually a beneficial exercise in writing, and those who see no relationship at all. Cullington begins her analysis with the first theory, quoting concerned teachers, citing the shock- ing statistic that “only 25% of high school seniors are ‘proficient’ writers” (90), and adding testi- mony from two of her former teachers. Cullington then explores the second take on texting and writing by providing contrasting testimony from other teachers who believe that texting is a bless- ing to their students’ writing. Cullington retrieves support for these two opposing views from inter- views and previous studies. To explore the theory that texting is irrelevant to formal writing, how- ever, she performs her own research, gathering results from seven students, two teachers, and an analysis of students’ written work. Despite the testimonial evidence against and in support of tex- ting, Cullington’s own results show that texting has “no effect, positive or negative, on [students’] writing as a result of texting” (95).

We as a society are evolving with each generation to come. We are getting stronger, faster, and smarter. Just as cell phones are no longer square blocks with numbers on them and TV’s are not in black and white, writing itself has also evolved. Once upon a time many wrote and spoke in a Shakespearean form of language and over the years it has evolved into something we call modern English. In recent years, technology has advanced greatly and cell phones have become one of our primary use of communication. With cell phones came a new form of writing called text messaging. Text messaging is used to send short, concise messages to anyone around the world. Often times text messages involve the use of abbreviations which stand for different things and also involves frequent use of emoji’s as a form of expression. This form of writing is now considered informal writing and is not acceptable in academic settings. In Michaela Cullington’s essay “Does Texting Affect Writing?” she touches on both sides of whether texting is hindering students writing or if it’s actually having a positive effect. She then makes is clear that she believes most students are educated enough to know when text speak is appropriate and when it’s not so therefore it has no effect on students. Although, I agree with her thesis, she lacks credibility due to her insufficient evidence. In addition, I also believe

“Does Texting Affect Writing” is about Michaela Cullington, the author, comparing two opposing perspectives. The perspective is whether texting hinders the formal writing skills of students or not. Millennials are a population that cannot go a day without looking at their phones so, due to the “increasing use of mobile phones, concerns have been raised about its influence on their literacy skills. No matter if it is sending or receiving a text or checking social media sites, technology has taken over the lives of the young generations. The essay “Does Texting Affect Writing?” in They Say, I say exposes how the significant action of texting and using textspeak, i.e. abbreviations and symbols, may be hindering the writing skills of teenaged students. People communicate using textese to “more quickly type what they are trying to say” (Cullington, 2017, p. 361). Textese is a “register that allows omission of words and the use or textisms: instances of non-standard written language such as 4ever” (Van Dijk, 2016). When these people use textese often, it can become habitual and transition into their school assignments. Michaela Cullington constantly repeats words and uses comparisons and abnormalities for the concerns about textspeak, the responses to the concerns, methods and the discussion of findings on the topic to be analyzed.

As texting has yet become a concern of many parents, teachers, and doctors because of the use of slang and Abbreviation is expanded especially in high schools and colleges. Michaela Cullington, who was a student at Marywood University in Pennsylvania and received a Masters degree in speech and language pathology from Marywood in 2014, discussed in “Does Texting Affect Writing?” about the problem above. In general, Cullington positively confirmed that texting does not have any significant effects on formal writing. Cullington also encourages the use of slang and abbreviations should be approved because of many benefits, or positive effects.

In the reading “Does Texting Affect Writing,?” the author, Michaela Cullington, defines text-messaging as a very popular way in which teenagers and business uses to communicate without the necessity of speaking in a more convenient and rapid way by writing short messages in their mobile devices. However, Cullington states that in order to communicate in a rapid way by text-messaging many people change words to abbreviations. “The language created by these abbreviations is called textspeak” (361). Owning to her well-developed research, Cullington discover that some people consider that the using of abbreviations in text-messaging is affecting the writing skills of students while other believes that is the contrary, that text-messaging helps

According to Cullington, “texting has a minimal effect on student writing” (367). Cullington, explains that students are very conscious about text-messaging and that they will never combine informal writing into formal writing because they believe that text-messaging with friends is not the same as writing an important paper in school. Nonetheless, Cullington states that Dennis Baron,an English and linguistics professor at the University of Illinois, “suggest students do not even use abbreviations in their text messages very often” (368). Cullington also emphasizes that another English teacher argues that “despite texting, her students formal writing remains solid”

   Text has become one of the most common ways teenagers communicate with others. This led to many people believing that students ability to write is declining because of texting. Cullington starts by noting argument of the negative impact of texting. Such as the one about students using abbreviations. In others words, some believe using abbreviations in

Thesis statement: In this paper, I will discuss how the frequent use of text messaging by teens today negatively affects literacy and I will offer suggestions that parents and teachers can implement and teach in order to raise reading, writing, and vocabulary skills.

A style of writing is as unique as a fingerprint; no two styles are alike. Writing today is not what it was 100 years ago, throughout the use of technology such as phones, laptops, and various apps; many words have been fabricated and etched into everyday communication. The English language has been modernized and branched out into many different styles of writing. In Jennifer Lee’s article, “I Think, Therefore IM”, the author presents the issue of internet lingua franca being instilled into the minds of school children, and being used in an academic setting. The issue is that these children will then incorporate the internet slang into essays and other forms of schoolwork. Therefore, through analysis of Lee’s article,

In today’s era, one of the major forms of communication is “Texting” and it is becoming popular among teenagers. More and more weight is being placed on it and it has become a “must have” in today’s culture. Statistics shows that texting is mostly used among twelve to seventeen years’ olds in the United States and is continuing to grow in people of all ages (Purcell, Buchanan, and Friedrich 12). People of all ages are “glued” to their mobile phones every day, wherever they are and whatever they are doing, they are either texting, chatting, or using some sort of a social media site. With the significant increase in the amount of texting, it has been proven that texting could “heighten the tendency among students to adopt non-standard uses and contracted forms of English words in their classwork” (Dansieh 222). However, utilizing wrong grammar, shortened words, and misspellings during the use of social media and texting has been formally adopted in the proper English language as well and is also being utilized in our education system.

Nowadays, teens text each other in “Textspeak”(David Crystal’s “Texting”), where “Words are formed in which letters represent syllables, as seen in ‘b’, ‘b4’,’NE’” (David Crystal’s “Texting”). Carrie Beth Buchanan, the head of the English Department at Clay-Chalkville High School, can already see the negative effects of Textspeak in student’s writing. In her class of twenty-five students, at least half of them turned in an essay that had abbreviations or acronyms. When she asked her class why they use this informal language, most of them did not even know that they were using it, because it had become natural to them to use Textspeak in any type of writing or communication.

Texting is a fairly new form of communication that has taken the world by storm. It became popular around 2001, and originally had its limitations, such as the 160-character limit. But now that technology has advanced, texting has followed along and is now a convenient, casual, and a more immediate way of communicating. So naturally, texting has evolved also in terms of the language used within it. We see this mostly in the form of abbreviations and short hand spelled words. Some people argue that texting has ruined the English language. Studies and observations have shown that the benefits of texting and cyber speak are much more broad then expected. Textisms have been shown to increase phonology skills, brain activity, creativity and provide a relatable outlet for students in education.

We use abbreviations and emoji’s to get our point across. As college students we send so many texting messages that we do not realize that we hold on to those habits of using incorrect spelling and full sentences. Using this way of communication so often has caused college students to carry it over to formal writing projects. Texting is another form of writing, some would believe that it will help with our writing skills but at the same time it making us lose our depth when it comes to writing. Students don’t use a much detail when it comes to writing papers. Grammar gets affected and we get in the habit of abbreviating our words which do not help enhance our writing at all. This articles just goes through saying that texting reflects on a lot more than just students language skills.