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THE DEATH O WRITING?Every day, people around the world 0 send almost 50 billion text messages This represents a major change in how people communicate with one another- and it's also having a significant impact on language itself.As text communication becomes faster and more commonplace, it has led to an array of space-saving abbreviations from IRL ("in real life") to JK ("just kidding").Some people think these changes aren't for the best.As linguist John McWhorter says in his TED Talk Txtng is killing language .JK!!!, "we often hear that texting is a scourge; it spells the decline and fall of literacy, or at least writing ability, among young people. 4 But McWhorter believes that texting isn't really writing.Rather, it's anew and unique form of communication. To understand McWhorter's ideas about texting, it's useful to take a look at what language really is. Human language is primarily oral. In other words, it is based in speech. McWhorter points out that while spoken language has existed for at least 80,000 years of human history, most experts agree that writing was invented only around 3200 B.C.He adds, "If humanity had existed for 24 hours, then writing only came along at about 11:07 P.M.That's how much of a latterly thing writing is."Speaking is the fundamental mode of human communication.Children speak before they write.And while just about everyone learns to speak, not everyone learns how to writen.McWhorter in fact, describes writing as "a kind of artifice," a clever device that provided a new way to communicate.

THE DEATH O WRITING?Every day, people around the world 0 send almost 50 billion text messages This represents a major change in how people communicate with one another- and it's also having a significant impact on language itself.As text communication becomes faster and more commonplace, it has led to an array of space-saving abbreviations from IRL ("in real life") to JK ("just kidding").Some people think these changes aren't for the best.As linguist John McWhorter says in his TED Talk Txtng is killing language .JK!!!, "we often hear that texting is a scourge; it spells the decline and fall of literacy, or at least writing ability, among young people. 4 But McWhorter believes that texting isn't really writing.Rather, it's anew and unique form of communication. To understand McWhorter's ideas about texting, it's useful to take a look at what language really is. Human language is primarily oral. In other words, it is based in speech. McWhorter points out that while spoken language has existed for at least 80,000 years of human history, most experts agree that writing was invented only around 3200 B.C.He adds, "If humanity had existed for 24 hours, then writing only came along at about 11:07 P.M.That's how much of a latterly thing writing is."Speaking is the fundamental mode of human communication.Children speak before they write.And while just about everyone learns to speak, not everyone learns how to writen.McWhorter in fact, describes writing as "a kind of artifice," a clever device that provided a new way to communicate. How, then, do writing and speaking differ?The main difference, as McWhorter states, is that writing is a conscious process.Writing allows you to think deeply about ideas as you express them.It gives you the opportunity to evaluate, expand on, and edit your ideas more thoroughly than through speaking does.Writers use more words than speakers to express ideas.In addition, writers cannot get immediate feedback on their message;they don't know in the moment how well people have understood them . Speaking, on the other hand, is more telegraphic than writing.In other words, speakers use fewer words to communicate a message.As McWhorter explains in his TED Talk, research shows that we speak in "word packets" of 7 to 10 words at a time.Speaking is also more spontaneous and less reflective.In addition, speakers can see in real time how well their listeners understand or are interested in their message, and they can correct or augment their message accordingly . While they are different forms of communication, writing and speaking influence each other, McWhorter says.An example is formal public speaking . Formal speeches follow the same structures and styles of written texts, but they are communicated orally.As McWhorter points out, the speech maker speaks "in a certain way which has nothing to do with casual speech."In other words, it's not conversational, it's longer and more formal .McWhorter concludes, "If you can speak like writing, then logically it follows that you might want to also sometimes write like you speak This is where texting comes into the picture e Texting is a way to write like you speak. McWhorter points out that thiswasn't really possible until technology made it easy to do. For example, compare typing on a typewriter or on a computer with the speed and ease of texting on a smartphone, not to mention the immediacy of the feedback from the recipient The phones we have today allow us to write like we speak. So, is texting a sign of linguistic decline?Not So in McWhorter's opinion.He sees texting as a new and important form of discourse, "a miraculous thing," that allows us to expand our linguistic repertoire, much like writing did 5,000 years ago