Letter to the Editor

By: Mohammed AL Hammadi 

I was recently scrolling through the worldwide web minding my own business when suddenly I come across this article that is speaking about how "Youngsters are also in danger of growing up with limited vocabularies because they spend so much of their free time on sites such as Twitter and Facebook instead of reading." and that's nonsense, complete nonsense. 

Essentially, the article "Twtr? It's majorly bad! Leading headteacher condemns 'text speak' for eroding schoolchildren's language skills" written by Laura Clark and published on the Daily Mail surveys teachers of how "text-speak" has influenced the students work. The article would go on and assail these teenagers of their incorporation of text-speak into their essays and how they don't care about "grammar" or "spelling" anymore. But these English teachers simply haven't grasped the fact that there is more to "text-speak", it isn't a form of English that's hindering the "traditional English", but rather it is a new language in itself. They also have to put into perspective that these teenagers are the future and so is their new language and sooner or later, they will be teaching the "text-speak English" and will be become the absolute norm. It's quite ironic that these teachers see this new language as a step down the evolution line when really it's a linguistic miracle. The abbreviations used can lead to pragmatic particles and can be used as a marker of empathy. Additionally, while, yes it is true that it would be beneficial for a student and person to be able to spell without any aid, but let's face it: as time passes on, the technology used becomes more advanced, such as handheld and household items and devices, and it becomes easier to connect to and use this technology. We, quite figuratively, live in a digital world. And by the time these students have children of their own, or even by the time they've become adults, there will be no occasion in real life where they won't have access to a type of system or software that would fix their spelling. These students have a legitimate reason for not caring about spelling or grammar because by the time they graduate or get jobs, it's reasons would be futile. 

In short, I simply wanted to inform you that these teacher's claims are absurd and have to put into perspective that the world is changing and so is the common language. And whether they like it or not, they just have to deal with it. The future is now.