- In the first blog, the writer of the article; John Humphrys, takes a stand against texting because he thinks that it is destroying the English language; he says '...pillaging our punctuation; savaging our sentences; raping our vocabulary. And they must be stopped.' He implies that those who text are similar to savage and primitive barbarians or tribal people with the use of words such as 'pillaging', 'savaging' and 'raping' which has connotations with battle, a medieval setting etc.
- In the second article, the writer; John Sutherland, also does not seem vaguely pleased about the uprising of the text message, etc. He mocks the (what may be considered as a) form of communication when he says 'It's writing on Kleenex. One blow, then throw. Snot-talk, if one wants to get nasty about it.' The writer questions why texting has taken off so explosively in the article.
- The third article; written by David Crystal, highlights some of the good points of texting and supports the plight of texting and so is quite opposed to the first two articles. He says; 'There is no point in paying to send a message if it breaks so many rules that it ceases to be intelligible. When messages are longer, containing more information, the amount of standard orthography increases.'
- Words have been brought about by the internet such as 'Rick-rolling', which means when someone expects to see a certain video when clicking on a link, however, a video of Rick Astley's 'Never gonna' give you up' plays alternatively.
- By many articles and their writers, texting is often called '...penmanship for the illiterate...'.
- I think that text messaging and messaging over the internet has allowed the more primitive, spoken language to be put into use as texting etc. is much more similar to spoken discourse as opposed to written discourse. Writing is slow and deliberate, whilst spoken discourse is very subconscious and rapid (as is texting and instant messaging). Therefore, texting could almost be compared to a new kind of talking which is developing it's own rules and conventions. Some words used in modern language via text can have hidden meanings. For example, 'LOL' is not always used to express joy or laughter, it can be used simply to signal basic empathy between the two people involved in the conversation which eases tension and creates a feel of equality for the speakers. Therefore, rather than having a meaning, it can be used to convey a feeling or an attitude.There are always many people banging away on their smartphones who are fluently using a code/language separate from the one they use in actual writing, and there is no evidence that texting is ruining composition skills. Although text messaging may be very useful, I personally do not see the point in many of the abbreviations which are used and I feel that it is actually the older generations that use text speak and abbreviations more prominently. I feel that younger generations have adapted texting and often use full written discourse in their texts because much of what is seen as text talk does not really make sense, so it is far easier to get your point across using regular written discourse (from my personal experience, this is often the case).
