Summary "2b Ot Not 2b"

"2b or Not 2b"

In the article "2b or Not 2b," David Crystal discusses how others such as John Humphry argue that texters are "...vandals who are doing out language what Genghis Khan did to his neighbors 800 years ago. They are destroying it" (Crystal 335). Crystal also argues that when printing came about it people thought of it as the work of the devil. People believed that printing would put false opinions into people's minds. When other inventions came about, such as the telegraph, telephone, and broadcasting it scared people and they felt that they would have negative consequences for the English language. Crystal asks the question, "Has there ever been a linguistic phenomenon that has aroused such curiosity, suspicion, fear, confusion, antagonism, fascination, excitement, and enthusiasm all at once as texting? And in a short space of time" (Crystal 336).

Crystal states that, "English has had abbreviated words ever since it began to be written down" (Crystal 339). Some abbreviations have become their own words over the years. However, they did not come without criticism. In 1711, a man named Joseph Addison had complained about how words were used in the English language. He thought them to be "miserably curtailed" (Addison 339). Another man, Jonathan Swift felt that when abbreviating words as "barbarous custom" (Swift 339). Crystal implies that in today's society, we use texting as a way of communication. At times, it can be good or bad depending on the situation. Crystal states, "...the need to save time and energy is by no means the whole story of texting" (Crystal 341). If you review some of the texts out there, they tend to be more complex than we would like them to be. Crystal believes as a society we play with the language that we learn as young children. People tend to view texting as fun.

The mobile literature craze began in China in 2004. It began with a love story. The story written was focuses on a couple who get to know each other by way of a wrongly sent text message. We all know that there are limits to what we can type in text with a small screen. Therefore, when texting came about we are only limited to 160 characters per text. This became a problem with texting for people. Crystal asks the question, "How could the distinctiveness of the genre be maintained?" (Crystal 344). This is when characters and texting abbreviations, which were once optional became mandatory.

There have been many prophecies made about the evils of texting. The creativeness that texting has brought about has been ignored. However, after lots of research the myths about texting have begun to disappear. Crystal argues, "The most important finding is that texting does not erode Children's ability to read and write. On the contrary, literacy improves"