Benefits:
- a lot faster
- don’t have to spend a lot of time writing
- can communicate without bothering them (they don’t have to reply right away or even read now)
- handy and convenient
- increases contact and accessibility
- people tend to read texts before listening to voicemail
- can save texts—so “paper” trail and accountability
- can trace calls and texts—again, accountability
- learning another language
- universal (maybe) language: lol, brb
- mobile, portable
- increased comfort level via different communication platforms
- quiet (no one else has to listen to your conversations)
Drawbacks:
- texting outside of school so shorthand makes its way into school essays--unintentionally
- forget grammar and spelling and punctuation conventions/rules
- addiction prevents you from paying attention to people around you
- not every student has a phone and knows how to text—so you can’t use them in the classroom and expect everyone to have one
- loss of physical and social interaction
- miscommunication because lack of verbal and visual cues (tone of voice, etc.)
- classroom nuisance
- cheating
- bullying
- no immediate accountability (emotional remove)
- If we keep starting earlier and earlier, will younger folks have enough “regular,” good English education to be, actually, bilingual?
Uses/Applications:
- For teaching audience: when to use and when not to use textspeak
- Not for academic writing
- When teachers see students texting in class, have that offending student send the teacher a text containing the content of the activity/discussion/lecture. Prove multitasking ability.
- Textspeak class = shorthand or keyboarding class?
- Note taking
Other:
- It really is easy to distinguish when and when not to use textspeak
- Really, how is this different from slipping into a second tongue?
- How does one pick it up, anyway? How does one learn it?
- Just another version of teen/youth slang? Territory of the Young
- Our spoken language is different from written language—always has been, before and after the “groovy” days. How is textspeak any different.
