Ware r u @?, @MediaBistro chilin, Y? C u lata K? Wats ur fave #Beatles song?
Riddled with misspellings, bad grammar and symbols that would make most people under the age of 20 cross-eyed, we are living in a world of Twitter, texting and Facebook. Today’s youth have created a condensed form of communication that is not only culturally significant but considered the norm. The question is: is the English language, which is becoming more cryptic by the day, becoming corrupted? Will this new language be the norm for books in the near future?
Some, not of the A.D.D. generation, are concerned about the long-term effects that this phenomenon will reveal, both in our daily speech and especially our writing. English majors aside, will the average graduate be equipped with a complete understanding of the English language? Will this lack of interest in writing in complete sentences signal a lack of interest in literacy as a whole?
According to Baroness Greenfield, a neuroscientist, these trends in texting may be leading to the demise of our youth’s attention spans. She also explains, “If a person uses their phone at the expense of all other forms of expression, there will be a resulting imbalance in their development”. This suggests children, especially those under the age of 10, will lack certain skills that their non-texting counterparts are more likely to develop.
A generational clash has begun. Who will win? A dying culture of literacy mavens or a new breed of young communicators armed with cryptic text messages and Twitter hash marks?