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Andre Giannini

Professor McGriff

ENC-11-01

3-12-20

Social media and texting with the English language

Do you ever think that the invention of the text was going to damage the way people use

the English language? Many people think that because texting is so popular now it is causing

other people to not be very good at face to face interaction. The other thing that people think it’s

causing the decline of some people’s communication skills. Texting and social media is also

causing some people to get addicted to social media and start developing a concept called FOMO

(Fear of Missing Out). On the opposite side some people believe that social media has enlarged

the use of the English language and the way people will use it. In this paper we are going to

discuss the way texting and social media has damaged the use of the English language, take a

look at the way it has damaged the face to face interactions, how social media has made some

people feel like they are not good enough because of the likes other people are getting, and on

the other side see how it has helped in broadening the vocabulary of the English language for

some people.

Many people in the world today think that with the invention of texting and social media

has damaged the way some people use the English language. In some ways these people are

right, but there are people that will disagree with you. According to John McWhorter from
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Time.com he says “that social media has broadened peoples vocabulary because they will see a

word that is used and they have no idea what it means, so they go look it up and then have a new

word in their vocabulary that they can now use”. Another reason why some people would say it

has helped them is it can help them with the spelling if some words since it would correct it for

them and they can see how it is supposed to be spelled. But McWhorter also goes on to say “that

most critics believe that texting is damaging to the language because it leads to people not being

grammatically correct and will take shortcuts to send the text faster”. There are some avid texters

that will just put the abbreviation for a word instead of spelling the whole word out. An example

of that would be when people are trying to say what are you doing, they will use the shortcut and

put “wyd” instead. Sometimes if people are having a conversation they will even say things out

loud that you would normally see in a text, like “lol”. It will also show up when people are

writing papers as well. Another example is how young people will talk to someone that is older

and has no idea what they are talking about.

Some people like Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein from chapter 13 of “they say, I

say” called “Is digital communication good bad—or both?” that don’t think that social media and

texting are ruining the language say that texting is helping the English language evolve and some

of the terms that are used in text messaging and social media show up in the dictionary now like

“lol” and “omg”. With the dictionary adding terms like this, they say that it makes them an

official part of the English language. In the same article Graff and Birkenstien state that because

of texting and social media many kids and young adults are lacking in social skills like having

face to face conversations and even have trouble looking people in the eye while they are talking

to them. This is also the belief of many that they do not have the confidence to have face to face

conversations and would much rather have them over text. Some think that this even goes to
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having over the phone conversations as they would just rather send an email or text so they do

not have to talk to a real person. To combat this growing problem many of the companies are

now adding in an automated answering service so people will have some confidence to call the

company that they want a certain product from.

Texting and social media in some people’s eyes like Eric Miller from bizjournals.com has

stated that “texting and social media brought the world closer together when it comes to the

amount of people you could know and be friends with”. An example of that is you could live in

the U.S. and be friends with someone that lives on the other side of the ocean in Europe and

never have to meet in real life. This can also be true for some people that play video games

online. You could be playing with and become friends with a guy half way around the world and

never see each other except on social media. On the other side of the argument some people like

Rhys Edmunds from Centreformentalhealth.org believes and he says that “people can get

addicted to social media and they have to be on it for as often as they can. This will lead to the

concept of Fear of Missing Out or FOMO as it has been labeled”. This concept has been linked

to the intensive use of social media websites and has been linked with a lower mood and lower

life satisfaction. When you are always on social media and you see your friends having a good

time without you this can lead to anxiety and loneliness which causes you to stay on social media

even longer.

Texting and social media has a positive and a negative effect on the use of the English

language but there is always going to be a debate on if its good or if it is a bad thing. There are

many people that believe it has negatively impacted the English language because of the way

people are taking shortcuts and social media is causing people to feel left out of stuff when they

see their friends having fun. Some of the positives though are it brings people from around the
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world closer together and able to talk to one another. The dictionary has even added some of the

terms from texting into it, which is helping the case that it doesn’t ruin the language because they

are being recognized as part of the official language. So in this paper we discussed the negatives

like causing people to lack the ability to have face to face interactions, hurt some peoples

communication ability, and people getting addicted to social media and developing a concept

experts are calling Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), but on the other side it has helped other people

broaden their ability to use the English language and help them learn words they have never seen

before. So now I will ask, do you believe texting and social media is ruining the English

language or do you think it has a positive impact on it?

Citations

Akanegbu, Anuli, et al. “Is Texting Ruining the English Language? [Infographic].” Technology
Solutions That Drive Education, 1 May 2019,
edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2012/10/texting-ruining-english-language-infographic.

“Anxiety, Loneliness and Fear of Missing Out: The Impact of Social Media on Young People's
Mental Health.” Anxiety, Loneliness and Fear of Missing Out: The Impact of Social Media
on Young People's Mental Health | Centre for Mental Health,
www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/blog/centre-mental-health-blog/anxiety-loneliness-fear-
missing-out-social-media.

Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say / I Say: the Moves That Matter in Academic
Writing, W. W. Norton & Company, 2018.