I was writing an email to a teacher yesterday and I kept catching myself making grammar mistakes. Nothing in the document was capitalized. I used b/c instead of because twice. I even caught myself typing the always embarrassing, "tho." Even while writing this blog, I keep forgetting to capitalize "I."
Is the source of these mistakes a lack of knowledge? At times, maybe. However I am a firm believer that text messaging and IMing have royally screwed up my grammar forever. In such informal conversation, I inappropriately deem grammar unimportant. The goal is to say what I need to say in the quickest manner possible.
Capitalization? Never. Contractions? No apostrophes. Ever. With, because and though are way to long to spell out and always have to be shortened to w/, b/c, and tho. The list could continue.
So the question is:
Have texting and IMing made our grammar worse or has the rise of technology just highlighted an ugly, already existing problem?
Comments (5)
oh its defintly made it worse. I always type papers with R and U and even on our test last week in journalism i shortend because to b/c. You know its sad when your friends say WTF in a real conversation. But NEwaze i g2g. TTYL. LOL! :)
Posted by jackie wittlinger | March 16, 2007 3:43 PM
Posted on March 16, 2007 15:43
I'm going to back you up on this one. I have written numerous emails to teachers and sometimes have been in all lower case letters, even when spelling my name. Although my grammar has never been spectacular, I do feel that text messaging and instant messaging have also contributed to my poor grammar.
Posted by Adam Samson | March 17, 2007 11:28 AM
Posted on March 17, 2007 11:28
I have the same problem. Even with facebook, I just never capitalize anything. As far as the acronyms go, my friends and I are always using things like WTF and LOL and BTW in regular conversation. It is a little sad, but one of my articles from a few weeks back suggested that internet and text lingo may be the new equivalent of the valley girl speak that was so popular in the '90s.
Posted by Hayley Shanks | March 23, 2007 1:13 PM
Posted on March 23, 2007 13:13
I'm not sure I agree with you on this one. Even though things like text messaging and instant messaging have made abbreviations and phrases like "lol" and "g2g" and such more prevalent, I have found that I don't type like that when doing something formal such as an essay. I might use grammar like that when usin AIM, but I find that I'm not in that mindset when doing something for school or work, etc. Also, spell check helps with that too...
Posted by Kent Travis | March 24, 2007 4:11 PM
Posted on March 24, 2007 16:11
I agree texting and IM have not helped with proper language use but at the same time, I think it was an already existing problem. In every language there are certain "slang" terms, but it seems more and more there are several in the English language and to me it just seems like laziness. Like we have to shorten every word or saying, such as "Where you at?" when it should be "Where are you at?" Seems like more and more we create certain words to mean several different things just because we are lazy and don't want to spend the time saying what we really mean. Texting and Instant messaging have only added to this and overall I think this will cause major problems with communication internationally, not to mention a further divide in generations.
Posted by Mandy Earles | March 24, 2007 4:13 PM
Posted on March 24, 2007 16:13