Today I watched a Ted Talks video about how texting is killing language. Texting has become a language all of its own. It has become more convenient to send someone a text than it is to call someone. It is quick, easy and almost effortless as it has become second nature to many people. We all text. Texting is especially popular among teenagers who seem to have taken the concept of texting and created a language that boggles even the most tech savvy individuals.
This is what John McWhorter on Ted.com calls writing as you speak. He refers to texting as brute writing. He states that when people text, they use capitalization and punctuation loosely. Not much attention is given to correct grammar. This is exactly how we speak. When we talk, we do not think about punctuation or capitalization.
McWhorter points out that if you take a person from 1973 and read them a text from a person in 1993, although some words may be different, they would still understand the message. However, if you take a person from 1993 and read them a text from a teenager today, they would be lost.Words and phrases have changed drastically.
An example of this is the abbreviation LOL which most individuals know as laughing out loud. This phrase is now being used in the context of creating empathy between texters, even when something is not remotely amusing.
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