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THUMBS UP or DOWN? Some fear text messaging hurts young people’s ability to write
BY WENDY LIBERATORE Gazette Reporter

    Look around in your neighborhood hangout and you’ll see thumbs flying over keypads. Young people are texting. And they are doing it like mad — typing missives as fast as their mouths can utter words.
    Texters prefer this mode of communication as they can gather information quickly and succinctly without the burden of long conversations or phone niceties. And they can do it discreetly, without friends or parents eavesdropping.
    But to keep the communication moving promptly, words and phrases, as all texters know, are reduced to abbreviations, such as “omg” (oh, my God), “bf” (best friend) and “lol” (laugh out loud or lots of love). Texters also drop verbs such as “uok” (Are you OK?) or subjects as in “luvu” (I love you.). It’s a separate language that some fret will destroy proper English usage.
    Dr. Megan Fulwiler, a writing professor at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, says: “The jury is still out on that.” She finds that university students are savvy, knowing when and where to use certain linguistic styles and forms.
    “They can distinguish between a written essay, a science lab and a text message,” said Fulwiler.
    Katie Sofia, a junior at Union College from Wakefield, Mass., agreed. She said she doesn’t know any college students who would write a paper in text speak. Still, she said she prefers to text. “It’s an easy way to keep in touch and it’s faster than the phone. But it has nothing to do with formal writing.”
    The same can not be said for high school students, however.
    Lori Maloney, the language arts director at the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake School District, said she sees texting sneaking into formal writing.
    “It started with IMing and emailing. Texting is the second generation. We started noticing things like not capitalizing ‘I.’ Students know that ‘I’ should be capitalized, but they don’t do it. Or they don’t use periods. It becomes a punctuation habit. These are the kinds of habits that transfer to academics.”
    She says it’s most obvious with the middle and lower high school levels. Once students reach 11th and 12th grade, they can more easily identify their audience and drop the improper uses. So Maloney speculates that the grammar aberrations are more developmental than permanent.
    “We don’t say texting is bad, bad, bad,” said Maloney. “We teach the difference between texting, Regents essays and research papers. A good writer knows their audience.”
    Fulwiler said that the challenge for teachers — at every level — is not separating texting and formal prose, but bridging them.
    “Research is finding that there is a disconnect between texting and writing. They don’t see texting as writing,” said Fulwiler. “But it is a form of communication. It’s a rhetorical use of language.”
    She also likes to point out that texting demonstrates that language is in flux. New words are introduced all the time. So, too, are new usages for words — such as text as a verb.
    “I think students feel that they learn grammar and it is written in stone. It’s not. It is constantly evolving to meet our communication needs.”
EXCITING DEVELOPMENT
    Dr. Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, said the shift in language is an exciting one.
    “Texting is a patois, a sophisticated, creative language,” said Thompson. “I think if Walt Whitman were writing today, he’d love it. He used the language of the street. He would probably end a poem with lol.”
    Like Fulwiler, Thompson says he doesn’t believe that texting damages writing. He said teachers, both on the college and the high school level, have always been frustrated with student writing. Today is no different. Part of that can be attributed to the times. Writing, as in his grandfather’s day, is no longer an essential tool to living. His grandfather who had a sixth-grade education, wrote flowery, persuasive love letters to court his grandmother. Thompson, on the other hand, grew up talking on the phone.
    “I never had to write in complete sentences. I talked.”
    Today’s kids, he added, are emailing and texting. The phone is not a necessity, but writing out messages is reversing the trend away from verbal skills.
    But when asked if texting would help a student write his English paper, he answered with a definitive “no.”
    Gail Hathaway, a 10th-grade English teacher at Greenwich High School, said writing issues aren’t text-specific. She says there is a larger issue at work. Today’s students are plugged into television, video games, computers and cellphones, which she says deadens their ability to reflect. This, in turn, corrupts writing.
EROSION OF REFLECTION
    “What’s happening is a continuing erosion of solitude and reflection that makes writing have substance,” said Hathaway. “I’m old-fashioned. But when I see people driving around and their kids are watching a video and not staring out the window, I think it’s at the expense of noticing what’s going on around you. It’s impoverishing deep thinking, and that is part of writing.”
    In addition to quiet time, Hathaway said that reading books and listening to music is more helpful to the writing process than any electronic device.
    Perhaps the last word should belong to a Alyson Baird, a Rensselaer resident who attends Dayton University and is a member of the texting generation. She wrote a research paper on texting and found that writing does suffer somewhat. But the biggest casualty to texting is not academics. It’s relationships.
    “You have to wonder what the world is coming too when people used to write love letters. Now they write luvu. It’s so impersonal.”

Gee...do they think that Text messaging will be worse than smoking pot and frying their brains with  LSD back in the 60's is worse? Give me a break! They better go back to putting mice in a maze to find their piece of cheese!

I thought along the same lines as you Bum.  There are definately more important things to worry about with kids today.  If teachers are teaching the proper writing techniques they should realize there is a difference between the two and and know when to use either.  I have to say one thing about the current love affair with cell phones though....last night I was picking up Chinese from the place in Mohawk Commons and out of the 8 or 10 people that walked in, every single one of them either had one IN THEIR HAND or were engrossed in coversation.  Whats up with that?  Do we need to go into a panic that a call might be missed while picking up your food?

Quoted from 47

I thought along the same lines as you Bum.  There are definately more important things to worry about with kids today.  If teachers are teaching the proper writing techniques they should realize there is a difference between the two and and know when to use either.  I have to say one thing about the current love affair with cell phones though....last night I was picking up Chinese from the place in Mohawk Commons and out of the 8 or 10 people that walked in, every single one of them either had one IN THEIR HAND or were engrossed in coversation.  Whats up with that?  Do we need to go into a panic that a call might be missed while picking up your food?

That is the crux of the matter.....knowing what to 'empty' the front folders of your brain of and then refilling them with what......

it's the ATM card and cash....pretty soon it wont be called money but credits......or apple pies....if one never baked an apple pie and
never saw an apple tree or apple, but like to eat the pie and someone told them it was called an apple pie, the person would just
agree with it, never knowing or caring what an apple was.....encyclopedia with binding and pages or google on the computer/laptop/
iphone/cell phone etc.......it's all in knowing what a person/species needs to learn to do...what to keep and what to get rid of from
our thought processes......

however, I do think that folks are WAY over the top with chat chat chat about nothing......

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Textbook case of a law that shouldn’t be necessary, but is

    It is unquestionably a commentary on how high our society has risen technologically — and how far we’ve fallen in terms of common sense and consideration of others — that laws banning text-messaging on a cellphone while driving a car are becoming more and more commonplace.
    Indeed, such laws seem necessary because no matter how obviously dangerous — how stupid! — it may be to take one’s eyes off the road to focus on a miniature computer screen while operating a ton-plus vehicle; then to take one’s hands off the wheel to key in a response, motorists persist in doing so. And when they do, they not only endanger their lives and the lives of anyone traveling with them, but anyone who might be sharing the road with them.
    Texting technology (which involves quickly pressing a cellphone’s numbers once, twice or three times for each letter) is still relatively new, and the craze is still relatively confined. Unfortunately, teens and young adults — those with the least driving experience — are the ones who it’s mostly confined to. Their love of texting is not, in and of itself, an issue — at least not in terms of their, or the public’s, safety — except when they’re driving.
    On Monday, Westchester County became the second major county in New York state to ban texting while driving. New York City is also considering such a measure. In truth, a prohibition should be enacted statewide, as has been done in Alaska, Minnesota, New Jersey and Washington. And it should be enforced more rigorously than the oft-ignored handheld cellphone ban. Perhaps if police had done a better job with that one, motorists wouldn’t be so brazen about engaging in far-more-distracting text messaging.

Quoted from bumblethru

Gee...do they think that Text messaging will be worse than smoking pot and frying their brains with  LSD back in the 60's is worse? Give me a break! They better go back to putting mice in a maze to find their piece of cheese!

Ill bet the families of the dead in the Los Angeles Metro crash on Firday may end up thinking Text Messaging is much worse-

I think Bum and I were referring to text messaging in general while sitting on your sofa at home or on the beach, not while engineering a train or driving a vehicle.  Unfortunately you would think people would have the sense to refrain from texting while driving etc.  That said.......I couldn't agree with you more Somebody.

Quoted from Sombody

Ill bet the families of the dead in the Los Angeles Metro crash on Friday may end up thinking Text Messaging is much worse-

No different than the families that have lost love ones from drunk drivers. Or families that have lost a loved one from domestic violence as a result of drugs. Or families that have lost loved ones from war. Lost a family member from cancer. No comparison.

Don't get me wrong...common sense would tell ya NOT to text while driving. But ya can't say one death is more or less heartfelt than another.

Things like this people have to go to the ER for (if they survived), with trauma to be treated.....now that is not healthcare that is medicine being
practiced.....

'healthcare' would be making the choice not to text while driving a train or otherwise.....see the difference......

The state has goofy mandates called"patient education"....after one is treated and waiting for discharge the nurse/MD would have to educate the person
about the outcome of their choice and how to avoid it in the future......so there will be a trifold pamphlet on the dangers of texting while driving/biking
or walking.....blah blah blah.......

edumacation comes at a high price---we cant afford ourselves