Is Texting the future of writing? Bet Not.
Language is live and vibrant, it reflects times, styles, state of mind. Net lingo, emoticons and texting abbreviations do not imply cultural inadequacy, just as formal traditional language does not necessarily spell canonized skills, but can very well be a generational trait.
The Net generation has been described as having the attention span of a flee – telegraphic, short, concise, to the point, moving on.
Are students failing English due to FaceBook and Twitter?
A Canadian press article claims that the free-form writing style of social networks like Twitter and Facebook is changing the way people communicate, and causing students to fail English. It definitely changes communications, but I doubt that this is the reason they fail English.
Which English?
Conveying a strong idea in 140 characters is a lot more complicated than detailing it over 700 pages.
An assignment was given to literature students: write a 6 word story, involving elements of mystery, sex and religious belief. The winning entry was:” Oh God, I’m pregnant, by whom?”
Is this texting or writing? Borders blurred.
To the Net generation reading Tolstoy’s 1500 pages of War and Peace may seem anachronistic, because in their culture the evolution of books will manifest by including video clips of mood and scene setting, instead of long chapters of landscape, furniture and clothes description.
Does how we express ourselves define who we are? In a homogenous culture – probably. In a heterogeneous versatile digital world, where we use a plethora of devices and communication platforms – the medium and the device are the message. Emoticons as visual emotion and mood expressions inside a text, or abbreviations as concise signaling, are new culture and communication codes that broaden the scope of communication, not reflect on the level of its users.
I am a literate expressive boomer, and still I would naturally insert 
, GTG (got to go) or C U L8R (see you later). I will pour out my mind in a word doc, but will converse in a manner that includes abbreviations and emoticons in IM or SMS.
Because I am a digital immigrant and not a native, in my case, no one would classify it as lack of perseverance, discipline and focus. The only writing I literally perform is filling a check or a shopping list – I type all the rest. Does it make me illiterate or adaptive?
It’s all in the eyes of the beholder. Changing minds, changing styles are not bad or good. They are different. Lack of adaptivity to new forming styles and clinging to known and established norms, do not have to spell superiority, it can very well be interpreted as rigidity, stagnation…. Therefore I believe that it should be considered not as signs of a decaying culture, but rather as expressions of medium based usability. Texting is for high speed processing. Writing – for vocalizing complex opinions and feelings.
The Net generation, at the forefront of technological and social innovations, is not shallow or undisciplined – they multitask in various writing styles expressions.
Nicholas Carr believes that in a texting world, writing will remain in a debased form. Deconstructing traditional writing patterns and reconstructing new forms that comply with the instantaneous culture and real time platforms is a sign of an evolving culture – these are the semiotics of combining traditional with state of the art.
When change is the only constant – only adapt!
