Do IM and SMS contribute to decay of language Essay

Do IM and SMS contribute to decay of language - Essay Example The modern generation’s introduction to texting of these sorts has influenced their behaviour in academic writing (Momberg). The fact of importance to most is which kind of effect is it having. Lecturers in the universities have been attributed to having said that the use of SMS to an extent nearing generalized communication over the day has resulted in loss of punctuation and proper spellings for most of the students (Momberg). On one hand it might have been the sole reason for their to the point replies with brevity (Momberg) since they have now gotten used to it. The conciseness something that would be considered as a positive effect of instant messaging and short message service but does it even out the loss of literature's grasp itself as well or does it help evolve it? It might be interesting to note that jargon of such kind was not really introduced by texting (Crystal), it was there 50 years before the introduction of texting. English, infact, is said to have been gene ralizing abbreviations since its epoch. Words such as car, exam, ok, etc (pun intended) were often abbreviated long before the modern age. All these first forms of the words were criticised in their own time, but have now become a part of the formal english literature (Crystal). Do we consider that evolution of culture or decay of language? It is the perspective that matters. To weigh the pros and cons of such an evolution might be the way to go. In 1711, Joseph Addison is said to have criticised the abbreviation of words. These abbreviations and short words are often SMS-esque and are often blended with the modern day short messaging and texting, be it over internet or a cellphone. The text messaging differ in terms of their abbreviations over individual writing styles. Although, some standards are now settling in as trends, there is no standard style or expectation of writing a short message or an instant message (Crystal). To find the origin of the usage of abbreviations in texti ng, it is not hard to see that it was to overcome the technological bounds of typing with a cell phone’s keypad rather than a full keyboard or even, for some, due to shifting newly to a keyboard from a traditional pen and paper writing as well as to save the costs by writing the minimum amount of text characters. On the other hand is it really just this which influences the transforming of correct spellings in to, often, more complex ones which might apparently take more time and energy. David Crystal regards it as a need to play with words and sounds to form a language without barriers that pushes the trend forward to even use words and abbreviations that are rather more complex than the language they are replacing (Crystal). The trend of texting might also be used as a cover up by many who can’t actually spell. On reading a text message full of SMS jargon, you have no way to tell whether the sender can spell proper english and has done it deliberately or doesnâ€℠¢t know how to spell and is using the short message jargon as a way to escape scrutiny of the reader (Clarke). This might be of interest to those who think that sms is decaying the english language; SMS is only hiding the facts that people have abandoned reading and writing proper literature. SMS, on the other hand, might be informally educating the readers to a new trend and evolving global language. The debate between these two sides would depend on how the abbreviations and the jargon is being used. Plain writing is not the only thing that has been influenced by short messaging and instant messaging. Poetry has also come in the line of texting through these