Response to Txting: The Gr8 Db8

When I began reading David Crystal’s book about texting, it was immediately clear to me that he understood the growing importance and popularity of this method of communication around the world. It was also clear that he believed that there should be some sort of book that could describe this phenomenon to others inside and outside of the literary community.

I was in strong disagreement with the discussion about texting destroying the English language in the beginning of the book. While it is obvious that text messages do not encourage the use of proper grammar, spelling, or even real words, this does not lead to the destruction of our language. The fear that young people will consistently use the language of texting rather than proper English seems rational but does not prove to be true in actual practice. I would be willing to assume that everyone in our class has sent a text message at some point in their lives and furthermore, that they have used a typical texting abbreviation in a text message. However, this does not mean that each, or any, of the students in our class are not capable of writing and speaking with proper English. It simply proves that people are capable of using proper written English and are also able to reformat their messages so that they can fit the constraints of text message size limits and self-imposed time limits.

It is clear that text messaging and the unique language that comes with it offers some advantages, which seem to be acknowledged by Crystal. The largest advantage, I would consider to be almost instantaneous communication of brief messages that do not necessarily require a verbal conversation. The most useful example of this, which Crystal discusses, is the use of text messaging in an effort to coordinate, change, or cancel a meeting. Additionally, Crystal makes clear some of the disadvantages. These include the often unnatural “keyboard” of the cell phone and the 160 character constraint on text messages. However, I think that the constant use of text messages has taught texters to easily overcome these disadvantages and, in many ways, texting has become a very natural activity for many.

Crystal’s discussion of who uses text messaging and where is it used was very informative. His assertion that many people saw texting as something that only young people did was no doubt true at one time. At this point, however, it is evident that kids and adults are frequently using this method of communication. In addition, the popularity of text messages by institutions such as businesses and universities is clearly on the rise. This is something that those here at George Mason have experienced firsthand. The most surprising part of his discussion of the spread of text messages, in my mind, was their usage around the globe. I was previously unaware that text messages were popular in so many other languages including Chinese, Hungarian, Russian, and French. I was especially surprised to read that text messaging was a popular technology in the United Kingdom before it truly became popular in the United States.

The text message is an extremely important writing technology in the today’s world. Many people, including myself, have come to depend on it as a convenient and relatively efficient method of communication. The description of text messaging by Sandra Barron (pg. 96) as “combining the immediacy of a phone call with the convenience of an answering machine message and the premeditation of e-mail,” is probably the most apt description of this technology that I have heard to date.