Is texting ruining English?

In a word? Yes. Chatspeak is ruining English. As a prospective high school language arts teacher, I realistically can't defend chatspeak. In reality, I can't stand it. I can't begin to voice my frustrations when I see a text from one of my friends, and it reads: "Wut r u doin?" I can't help but ignore the sender. As Linda Howard states in the article "Is Chatspeak Destroying English?", Chatspeak is ruining the Text Generations' comprehension of the English language. In the article Howard writes, "At some point it is time to realize that the English language must be used effectively to understand and to be understood."

Howard is right. The next generation of students have a below average comprehension of English and their test scores are reflecting this.

Essentially, Chatspeak is linguistic lethargy. How difficult is it to search the computer's keyboard for a few extra consonants? While Chatspeak may be beneficial in small-scale, interpersonal communication, where space is limited, such as a text. But in a large scale environment, Chatspeak is detrimental to modern English. As Howard writes, "The shortcuts of Chatspeak are a welcome convenience when keying data into the cell phone or online chat rooms, but they have no place in the larger society, where effective writing skills are a must." If students fall into the practice of using Chatspeak at every opportunity, their understanding of grammatically correct English with fall by the wayside.

I find this doubly concerning because I am beginning to see this same slick, paltry obsession with lazy English. As I stated previously, I can't stand it when my friends send me e-mails, or text messages, and the messages are littered with Chatspeak. I have even been ridiculed by my peers because I not only prefer to, but I habitually use proper grammar when I write. I try to employ proper English in every aspect of my life. As a prospective language arts teacher, I feel I owe it to myself, and to my future students. In short, Chatspeak is ruining our conception of English. Chatspeak is lazy and far from literary.