Kuhn 1

Charlotte Kuhn

Prof. McGriff

Comp. 1

3/12/2020

This Is The Future Of Communication and Words

Are texting and social media helping or hindering us? Some people think society is losing

its ability to hold face-to-face conversations, have a lack of vocabulary, and do not know how to

write using proper grammar because of texting and social media. On the other side of the

argument, individuals believe that this is not true. For this argument paper, I will debate for the

pro-side of texting and social media helping people. I hope to shed light on the facts of texting

and social media so people can see the positive effects texting and social media provide people.

Specifically, the boom of communicating through texting and social media, how texting and

social media platforms have significantly expanded our exposer to new vocabulary, and that

proper grammar is not declining because of texting and social media.

First, let us discuss the boom of communicating through texting and social media. Chan,

Melanie. The dying art of conversation – has technology killed our ability to talk face-to-face?

stated, “What with Facetime, Skype, Whatsapp and Snapchat, for many people, face-to-face

conversation is used less and less often.” This statement may be true from some people’s

perspective, but for other people that may not enjoy face to face conversations with other people,

those social media apps and texting is a way of helping them communicate and stay connected

with other individuals and the world. However, this does not prove that we are not

communicating less. Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. Don’t Make Them Scroll Up, stated:

“With just a few taps on a keyboard, we can connect with what others have said not only
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throughout history, but right now, in the most remote places” (pg. 166). It is not that we are not

communicating less we are just finding different ways to include everyone in the big umbrella of

communication. People have always tried to find new and more natural ways of communicating.

Communication has changed throughout time and has evolved into many ways in which we can

communicate. Just to name a few ways we can communicate without having in-person contact is:

calling someone, sending an email, writing a letter, send a text, using skype, or facetime with

other individuals. All the ways I listed are a multitude of ways to communicate. At one time or

another, every one of those forms of communication was believed to be a way of ending in-

person communication, but here we are today still communicating face to face with other

individuals. Since we do not all enjoy communicating the same way, the more choices we have,

the more people can stay in communication with other people, whether it is texting or talking to

someone face to face. There is not just one way of communicating. People have always either

been face-to-face communicators or shy individuals who never socialized. The difference in

communicating these days is that texting, and social media platforms have provided people with

the ability to choose what works best for them to communicate with friends, family members,

and other individuals around the world—allowing people to be more connected than ever before.

Next, let us look at how texting and social media platforms have significantly expanded

our exposer to new vocabulary. Pinker, Steven. Mind Over Mass Media. “Knowledge is

increasing exponentially” (pg. 1031). One would say that it has not caused catastrophic damage,

but it has changed because vocabulary is a breathing organism that has continued to evolve

throughout time and will continue to change into the future. Words that were once not in the

dictionary are now in the dictionary. There is even an urban dictionary these days for slang

words we use in everyday speech and writing. Pinker, Steven. Mind Over Mass Media.
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“Knowledge is increasing exponentially” (pg. 1031). Do you know the word Scriptophobia? I

did not know this word, but because a friend posted it on social media, I was able to have the

exposer to this new word, what the definition of the word is, and how to use it in a sentence. Just

stop for a moment and think about twenty years ago how we lacked exposer to new vocabulary

words compared to today. If one wanted to learn a new word twenty years ago, they would have

to either wait till they were around a dictionary, own a complete set of encyclopedia’s, or head to

the local library and start reading books. Now people can be anywhere with phones or computers

to have new words smack them in the face. Texting and social media are not killing our

vocabulary; it is expanding it and making it easier for us to access.

Finally, the last point to discuss is that proper grammar is not declining because of texting

and social media. Alix, Grammar in the Age of Social Media “With social media and technology

expanding daily, students and the general public are beginning to embrace shortened "text-speak"

as part of an overall trend of using bad grammar, bad punctuation and bad spelling–all for the

sake of convenience and speed.” People these days are writing and are not using capital letters,

commas, or periods in their sentences when texting and posting. The real question is, did the

indented person understand what the text was trying to relay? Text and post are not academic

essays or formal documents like a last wheel and testament. So, why work harder when one can

work smarter when relaying a simple message. This concern of lacking proper grammar skills is

made by individuals who have a strong love for proper grammar. They see a post or read a text

that has incorrect grammar and blame technology for allowing people to become lazy writers that

do not follow the current grammar rules. Crystal (901) points out that “Many texters alter just the

grammatical words (such as “you” and “be”).” What about a court reporter? Their job is to write

in shorthand all day long. Why does this not upset the same people that have issues with
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improper grammar in text and social media posts? It is just part of their job to make the text

easier for relaying certain information to other individuals, just like when someone sends a text

or writes a posting on social media. If we dive deeper into this discussion, we could even debate

that people no longer talk in proper form, but we hardly ever hear about this debate because it

has taken decades for the changes to take effect, and now it is just the way we talk. The same can

is for proper grammar. We do not write the same as individuals did centuries ago, and centuries

into the future, people will not write or talk the same as they do today. It is not that most people

are unable to write in proper grammar when sending a text or posting on social media; it is just

easier to use shorthand, abbreviated words, and emoji’s when relaying a quick message to a

friend or family member.

This argument discussion is about the change of times and how texting and social media

have helped people. The real argument discussion should have been how people do not like

change. People will continue to socialize through face-to-face interactions just as people will

continue to communicate through texting, social media, facetime, or whatever the next creation

of communication is because we have the choices. Vocabulary is on the rise. We read now more

than ever before, and that causes us to have exposure to new words we would have never seen in

our lifetime thanks to the convince of texting and social media. Proper grammar is a skill most

people have; they just chose not to use it when sending a simple text or post because it is easier.

Mark Kennedy said, “All of the biggest technological inventions created by man - the airplane,

the automobile, the computer - says little about his intelligence, but speaks volumes about his

laziness.”
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Works Cited

Crystal, David. “2b or Not 2b?.” Everyone’s An Author.2nd ed.,

W.W. Norton & Company INC, 2017, 2013 pp.899-907.

Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. “Don’t Make Them Scroll Up.” They Say/I Say.4th ed.,

W.W. Norton, 2018, pp. 166-174.

Pinker, Steven. “Mind over Mass Media.” Everyone’s an Author.2nd ed.,

W.W. Norton & Company INC, 2017, 2013, pp. 1029-1031

Chan, Melanie. “The dying art of conversation – has technology killed our ability to talk face-to-

face?”, The Conversation, 29 March 2019, http://theconversation.com/the-dying-art-of-

conversation-has-technology-killed-our-ability-to-talk-face-to-face-112582.

Alix, “Grammar in the Age of Social Media”6 March 2012

https://www.aaeteachers.org/index.php/blog/677-grammar-in-the-age-of-social-media