Is texting eroding young people's English grammar?

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Dear Cafetalk Community,

Today, I ask this question, "Is there a generation gap?" Speaking as an English teacher, where every apostrophe, punctuation, misspelling, and incorrect grammar sticks out like a sore thumb, the recent trend of texting is definitely becoming a concern among young people. The concern is that young people are overlooking and dismissing proper forms of grammar, punctuation, and sentence structures in favor of acronyms, emoticons, and abbreviations using creative writing and imagery.

Texting may be acceptable as a form of a succinct, brief, and concise communication style, especially among young people. Perhaps texting is a separate and valuable form of communication suitable for certain platforms or devices. However, if the youth today do not learn the fundamentals of English writing and grammar, they will never learn to write properly in their academic or professional career. As a result, schools should go out of their way to teach English grammar and writing to students.

I believe we are already compromising proper writing in emails since the concise communication style almost sound blunt or abrupt sometimes. I love reading English novels and words are precious to me. In fact, I automatically correct spelling, punctuation, and try to choose the most appropriate vocabulary words, so naturally, I am averse to the short and cut-off language of texting.

This is not only my opinion but also concerns voiced in many US newspapers and magazine articles. Please see the articles below that convey the idea that the youth today are not appropriately learning how to read, write, or comprehend English grammar due to constant texting.

[Newspaper articles:]

1.) Is texting eroding good writing skills among young students? [Yale Magazine]
https://campuspress.yale.edu/perspective/is-texting-eroding-good-writing-skills-among-young-students/

2.) Why can't college students write anymore? [Psychology Today]
https://www.psychologytoday.com/nz/blog/the-first-impression/201402/why-can-t-college-students-write-anymore

3.) Is texting killing the English language? [TIME Magazine]
https://ideas.time.com/2013/04/25/is-texting-killing-the-english-language/

What do you think? Perhaps texting and writing are two different genres. At the same time, English writing should not suffer and continue to be taught at school to all students. I think writing is an important tool that helps a child become a competent and capable adult in business and personal life.
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Thank you for reading my tutor's column! I hope I have the opportunity to help you improve your English.

Warmest regards,

Lady Ayame

(Patricia Ayame Thomson)

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