Ryan ChartrandA distinctive beep signaled that she had just received a text message. With a quick flick of the wrist, Megan Nitz flipped open her phone and read the message displayed on the screen. With the instinct of an animal, she began a high-speed thumb choreography, fingers bouncing off the buttons like hot oil in a pan. With the same quick flick, the phone was closed. “Sorry, where were we?” she asked, returning to the question.
Already a phenomenon, text messaging is becoming an obsession among college students like Nitz, an animal science junior. As more and more college students immerse themselves in the language of text messaging over their cell phones and computers, language dissolves into shortcuts and slang.
The abbreviations and slang used in text messaging, referred to as “text speak,” is known to sacrifice grammar, syntax and punctuation for the sake of slang and brevity. And educators worry that their writing and communication skills are suffering. The issue, as suggested by James Billington, the Librarian of Congress, is that young Americans’ use of electronic communication might be damaging “the basic unit of human thought – the sentence.”
“I receive text messages on a regular basis that are grammatically incorrect. Sometimes, I can’t even understand what is trying to be said. I think the slang and shortcuts do affect students’ writing skills. I have heard of students accidentally writing a shortcut in a school essay. It’s just becoming habit,” said Nitz, who has developed a habitual use of text messaging, claiming it is her primary form of communication among friends.
As convenient as it may be to substitute “omg” for “oh my god” or “ttyl” for “talk to you later,” professors are not thrilled to see “lol,” an expression of laughter, attached to the end of sentences or “4” used in place of the word. According to a 2008 national telephone survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and National Commission on Writing, 50 percent of teens say they sometimes use informal writing styles instead of proper capitalization and punctuation in their school assignments; 38 percent say they have used text shortcuts in schoolwork such as “lol” and 25 percent have used emoticons (symbols like smiley faces ?) in school work. Educators are worried that students who express themselves in abbreviations and smiley faces on a daily basis may lose the capacity for more advanced, grammatically correct writing. Additionally, the emphasis on conveying a message with as little text as possible concerns some educators who feel that this technique may pour over into schoolwork and cause students to struggle when asked to write an essay of length.
Proof of this growing obsession goes beyond the Cal Poly campus. Take, for example, an article from MSNBC, which reported on a 23-year-old woman from Singapore who set a world record for number of text messages sent over a mobile phone. Kimberly Yeo thumbed 26 words in 43.24 seconds into her phone. Or an article from BBC, which reported a 13-year-old Scottish schoolgirl who handed in an essay written entirely in text message shorthand, which needless to say, baffled the teacher. One extract said: “My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :- kids FTF. ILNY, it’s a gr8 plc.” (In translation: “My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend and their three screaming kids face to face. I love New York. It’s a great place.”) In addition, a study in Ireland showed that national test results in English for about 37,000 students aged 18 to 22 were lower than ever before. The department’s Examination Commission said cutting-edge communications technology has encouraged poor literacy and a blunt, choppy style at odds with academic rigor.
Clearly this phenomenon is becoming an issue around the world, but how is it affecting students on the Cal Poly campus?
Many Cal Poly students agree that text messaging is convenient and quicker than calling a friend or talking to them in person.
“That’s the point of text messaging. To be short and to the point and to avoid all the fluffy stuff. I think that students might get used to being as brief as possible and using incorrect shortcuts in an effort to be quick and will have trouble when trying to write a formal essay,” said psychology sophomore, Shauna Shea.
While many educators say that the language of text messaging may be pouring over into schoolwork, many Cal Poly students acknowledge the effect that text messaging is having on their communication skills.
“People say things in text messages that they wouldn’t normally say just because it’s not in person and it’s so quick. It basically takes the place of face to face communication,” said kenesiology sophomore, Lindsey Soli.
Face to face communication, the most formal and personal type of communication between two people, is becoming increasingly less used as college students look to the quick and instantly gratifying benefits of text messaging.
Johanna Rubba, a Cal Poly associate professor of linguistics in the English department, acknowledges a trend that she has noticed in her students.
“They now have the ability to multitask and they have a very short attention span. It’s the kind of life this generation leads now. For example, they don’t let me finish a sentence because they think they’ve received the whole message. I have to ask them to let me continue. There is a problem with focus of attention and they don’t engage in the kind of thought to function in the wider world.”
As acknowledged by Rubba, the use of text messaging may be strangling students’ use of complex thoughts. These instant messaging devices are promoting conversations of less profundity on account of the kind of communication used in the medium. “The length and depth of content have become limited. In text messaging, you have to be short. You rarely will engage in philosophical discussions because it’s not suited to the medium. It discourages deep thought and discussion because the primary focus is quick social interactions. Abstract thoughts are becoming limited,” Rubba said.
The increase in cell phone use is having educators wondering if the age at which a child starts communicating through this medium effects how well they develop both their writing and communication skills, and if it reflects in their preparedness for college and the real world.
“It’s a shame that 10 and 11-year olds are texting so frequently at a time when they should be developing verbal communication and social skills with their peers. In the future, I think that the children of this generation will have a hard time verbally communicating in ordinary day-to-day social, academic,and business situations,” said schoolteacher at Tam Valley Elementary School in Mill Valley, California, Marilyn McGuhy.
Children are using technology more so than ever before, which will undoubtedly affect their writing, language and communication skills as they mature. “They could find themselves feeling very uncomfortable and lacking confidence when they enter the work force and have to face interviewers and interact with people in the business world. In the business world, you’re not texting your clients. You’re sitting around a table in the Boardroom selling yourself. You need verbal skills,” McGuhy added.
What does this mean for the future of college students? Will they have the skills necessary to do well in a professional interview or be successful in the work force? Rubba feels that this generation will indeed have problems after graduating college. “Student’s won’t have the breadth of language and skills necessary to communicate in the real world.”
While excessive text and instant messaging may affect a student’s future, the thought hasn’t even crossed most Cal Poly students’ minds. What they care about, they say, in the here and now is maintaining good social contact and keeping up with the ever-expanding dictionary of text messaging slang.
The slang used in text messaging is complex, sometimes downright impossible to translate into formal English. Some terms are common knowledge across campus, such as “lol” (laugh out loud), “ttyl” (talk to you later), “brb” (be right back), “omg” (oh my god), among hundreds of others. This slang is becoming a language among the young generation, in turn causing an increasingly large generation gap.
Both Rubba and Cal Poly student Lindsey Soli agree that the generation gap is widening due to the language used in telecommunications.
“Text messaging is an insider language, and that language and understanding is limited to the generation that uses it. It’s essentially a translation problem,” Rubba said. Even the younger generation agrees that it’s having an effect on relationships and communication between the past and present generation.
“My mom can’t do anything involving technology. She can’t even check her voicemail. I’ll be like, ‘Mom, I called you. Did you get my message?’ and she’ll tell me that she doesn’t know how to check it. My main form of communication is texting so if I say I talked to someone, my mom doesn’t understand that I mean I text messaged someone, not talked to them face to face,” Soli said.
From writing to verbal communication, text messaging is inevitably having an effect on this generation’s youth.
“Everyone has a different voice, and you can’t distinguish individual voices through technology. Text messaging is making the whole existence of people more impersonal. If the youth are relying so much on technology to communicate now, I can’t imagine how people will be communicating 10, 20, 100 years from now,” Nitz said.