So, I really hate the BBL blog functions. Apologies for subjecting you to that. I don't know what I was thinking. To make amends, I've created this blog. From now on do your Reading Reflections here.
For next class, read this article (you may have to be logged-in to your portal to follow the link) and watch the following TEDTalk:
I hope this works out better.
Athena
John McWhorter really made some great key points on how languages have evolved over time due to generations and the way that texting has affected writing. It interested me how he related the writing style of many years ago to today's writing habits. Teenagers text the same way they would speak which affects their writing and so on. I agree with McWhorter on how texting is "fingered speech". It creates a lack of concern of punctuation and capitalization. Young people today have evolved the writing languages from years and years ago and will continue to throughout the upcoming years.
ReplyDeleteThis short Ted talk really intrigue me and completely changed what I thought about texting. John McWhorter explains how writing and speaking are two completely different types of communication. For example, McWhorter says that people do not speak the same way they write and if they did, people would think they sounded weird. I thought that is was interesting how texting is considered a new type of language and is a non-verbal way of speaking to one another. Technically considered fingered speech/language. By learning this new language teens are almost becoming bi-lingual in a different type of english. For example, English speakers from England speak differently than Americans. This can increase a persons learning capacity. Many teachers that texting is killing kids abilities to write, when in reality texting is not an issue. Reports from 1917 show that teachers thought the exact same thing even when texting wasn't around. Texting is a new type of language and will continue to change and improve.
ReplyDeleteThis Ted talk was definitely directed towards any person who texts and all persons about 13 and older. It is an informational type of video that many teachers and others could learn from. I know I myself learned a lot from this video.
During the video McWhorter's point about how the way we talk is very different than how we write and the problem is that when we read writing we think that's how we are supposed to talk, really stood out to me. I feel that sometimes I read things in literature that's completely different then how we talk now and I either just don't understand it or comprehend it in a different way then it's meant. That goes the same for some things I read now from this generation, where the "texting language" seems to over power the majority of younger peoples minds. At this point teenager's are so engrossed in their smartphone's texting, facebooking, tweeting, etc., which has obviously been the reason for the drop in proper writing for their generation, that the proper way to write almost ceased to excist.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found interesting from this weeks TED talk was that lol and other slang terms we use in texting have evolved to mean completely different things than when they were first being used. I have found that my friends and I use haha and lol in around 25 percent of our message but never once did we laughed out loud. Its crazy to think that we are creating new words in order to express emotions like excitement. I really liked McWhorter's point that texting is basically fingered speech with the mechanics of writing. With this new form of speech it allows our generation to communicate ideas without writing it down formally or having a face to face discussion about it.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the TedTalk, I think McWhorter has some valid points but some of those are pretty stretched. It's true, that writing is very different from speaking but he made it sound as if it was nothing really special when compared to speech. That's how I took it anyway. On the subject of texting itself, despite the video and engaging in texting myself I still believe its a form of butchered English. In the long run I know that most people will learn texting apart from their standard English taught at schools, but he gives texting way too much credit. I also noticed that he, like Williams, commented that people have never really been at peek literacy levels. This is something I found interesting since I was did assume that my parents generation was one with greater writers, but it seems now that perhaps true literacy may come with age. Gives us a few years to be bad at English writing anyway.
ReplyDeleteI found this TED talk very interesting, He talks about how texting is not bad and is actually a normal way of communicating. He discusses how texting is more like speaking instead of writing. I like how he makes that analogy because most people do not like to speak like they write. I text all the time and I notice how i use similar words as to how i talk in person instead of how i would write an essay. I feel that texting is becoming a new language that is more of a spoken language instead of a written one. I really enjoyed this TED talk because of the way he connects texting (something very relevant to us) to how many people would perceive it as a bad use of English. But instead he says its a good way of communication in our present world.
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