Bagley

Jacob Bagley

Mrs. Raymond

uwRT

1103-E03

September

8,2014
Learning to Write Again

Modern technology- is amazing. We can use it to treat cancer patients, spread

news across the world in a matter of seconds, draw awareness to social issues, fight

for

victims of oppression, reunite long lost family members, and learn a trew language. But
inost importairtly, we can use technology to report how two a-list celebrities broke up,
and there's a disagreement over who gets the $15

million mansion. Isn't it wonderful?

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Technology will only grow, and no matter how much we resist it, technology will always
cireep its way into our lives.

Like everyone else, I have been affected by technology, and it changed me most
drasticaly in the ninth grade. It marked the first time that I would ever talk to someone
throg$h a text messag. And even though I didn't know it at ttre time, it would mark my

jofrn"y into the deep, dark

depths of elechonic communication.

At first, I

sent texts that

eflected exactly how I would speak in person. So I would talk like this. Then i would
start to tatk like '.tris. Then i would start 2 talk like this. then i wud start2 talli like this

And so it marked the beginning of a slippery slope. All of those yeaxs of correct spelling
and sentence structure just went out the window. The more

I used'texting spelling", the

harder it was for me to switch back to normal spelling. I had effectively stunted my

growth in grammar. I was putting all of my focus on how to write before I started texting.

At the time,Slnly used technology to write very formal papers. I was so used

Bagley

to seeing twelve-point; times new roman font appear on a screen in a perfectly strucfured
sentence. But now, thanks to texting,

I saw the same font

appear in shallow, incomplete,

informal phrases which was then plastered all over my phone's screen. Texting took
something that was once so sacred to me, and it took away it's meaning. I had typed
sentences so much that

I had a hard time snapping bet'ween informal and formal speak. It

was almost like a coming of age for my

witing. I was at a crossroads. Thankfully,I

recognized the problem, and it may or may not have been after a couple '6C's" on some
papers.

I knew I had to fix this problem by fixing my texting. With every new message, I

made a conscious effort to use corrsct gr'ammar, and slow{y

I was able to relearn how to

read and write.

After having my rntiting growth stunted for so long, I was finally able catch up.
As hard as it was for me to 'orelearn", I feel as if the next generation of kids will
more difficult time. I say this because it seems like everywhere I go, there are

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preschoolers on iPhones. This kind of expoilire at such a young age could definitely be a
learning detiment to future students. It took me a long time to recover from a very brief
period of using texting lingo, and I can't believe what it would be like to fiy and break a

whole lifetime of using that o'languaga". Onthe other hand, if those kids are taught

corectly at such a young age, they could develop their writing skills at much younger
age. Everyone'so literacy

naratives will be different, and the ever-changing technology

will always influence that. I'm just thankful that I flnally

so

think. :n,glil . r-q

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learned how to

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