Texting Hurts Ireland's Youth

Texting Hurts Ireland's Youth

technology.sympatico.msn.ca

Ireland's youth are becoming increasingly poor spellers and writers, and their love of text messaging on cellphones is a major reason why, according to the government's Education Department.

In a report published Wednesday, the department's Examination Commission said cutting-edge communications technology has encouraged poor literacy and a blunt, choppy style at odds with academic rigour.

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Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Please Avoid Using TXT Shorthand On ATS (UPDATED)

I thought this was rather relevant, in light of ATS's recent move to cut down on TXT abbreviations and slang on the boards.

However, I'm wondering if the TXT style of writing could simply be the next evolution in the english language. If you were given a document written in English 300 years ago, you would likely have a very hard time decyphering it. English is always evolving, and maybe TXT is the next step towards a more efficient language.

technology.sympatico.msn.ca
(visit the link for the full news article)

TXT Speak is the destruction of english through abbreviation akin to Orwellian New Speak. It's devolution not evolution.

Originally posted by Yarcofin
English is always evolving, and maybe TXT is the next step towards a more efficient language.

Surely an evolving language would rise in complexity, not get simpler?

Originally posted by dissembler
TXT Speak is the destruction of english through abbreviation akin to Orwellian New Speak. It's devolution not evolution.

Well to be honest for example look at 'OLDE' or 'OLDETH' English you see we just drop letters with no affect on the descriptive value of the word you talk about evolution well efficiency is apart of evolution i dare say look at any modern langauge today and compare it to it's past forms and you will roughly find that most words have lost letters etc over time but still describe the same thing.

P.S. According to some schools of thought devolution is apart of evolution anyway

I think the point here is the written word is being used more for communication
and in some instances TXT speak is more efficent and saves time.We are not gonna see txt speak in newspapers and novels anytime soon its solely for communication,so saying its "devolution" of the english language is absured. Doctors use shorthand writing to take notes, because its more efficent.TXT speak operates in much the same way.

After all, its communication if you get the message does it matter what language its in or hows its written?

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

[edit on 1-5-2007 by Merkeva]

Personally I think its disgusting.

If it is some form of linguistic evolution it seems to be happening at a frighteningly quick speed. Im sure dropping the e from olde took a little longer than the mere months it took this younger generation to take the written word down to: TXT, L8, IDK, etc..

The worst offenders I think are the 'TXT' versions of words that contain the same amount of letters. That really bothers me. Its like taking extra effort to be wrong.

Thats okay. I cant wait to see what happens to these kids when they begin their careers. We'll get alot of sucessful researchers, lawyers, teachers and doctors out of this up and coming bunch.

Maybe it would all work out for them if there was some cataclysmic event that destroyed anyone who disapproved of this 'TXT' stuff. Then they'd be free to live and work however they chose or chOz.

I agree this is devolution not evolution..

A language that goes backwards.. Look at Latin, its a rather blunt and simple language, and it evolved into French, Spanish, romanian, Italian, ect ect... very complex languages..

English is evolved from an old Germanic Saxon language (raped by French of course) and that was a rough language, very short (all 4 letter cuss words are straight from Saxon )

I will hate to see the day that teachers allow children to write "u" for "you" and r for "are" or "our" and rnt for "are not" just about retarded if you ask me.

Of course I would have thought kids smarter then to use "txt" speak on everything including reports. Maybe I over estimated the youth.

PS. Its bad enough we have words like "bling bling" being added to our dictionaries .. maybe we need to be more like the French and actually dictate the language.

[edit on 5/1/2007 by Rockpuck]