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Mikayla Knudson
ENGL 1010-061
Ben Solomon
April 24, 2013
Texting: Good or Bad for Communication?
In today’s society, we could all agree that texting has become a world-wide phenomenon,
because so many individuals use their mobile phones to stay connected and communicate with one
another. What we cannot agree on is how good this communication is, due to the increasingly lacking
communication skills that are in apparent in text messages and that have made their way into
everyone’s day to day lives. I am a part of the generation that feels it necessary to text constantly, but I
am also one of the few in this generation who isn’t attached at the hip to my cellphone. I would love to
have a face-to-face conversation with someone rather than sending them a meaningless “what’s up”
text message, but today that seems to be hard to find without an interruption from a notification beep
while in mid-sentence.
This debate of whether or not texting is good for communication skills or not was brought to my
attention years ago, when I started to notice that people no longer wanted to have a serious
conversation with me, but instead would text me all day long about the same pointless nonsense.
Recently, I’ve seen it become an even bigger problem, not only in regards to serious one-on-one
conversations, but also in my peers writing habits, who use the acronyms such as IDK, WTF, and ILY even
when they are not texting. Recently, I was sitting at my boyfriend’s house on the couch just patiently
waiting for someone to look up from their phones to notice that I was the only person in the room
whose eyes weren’t glued to the handheld screen in front of them. I desperately wanted a real
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conversation, maybe just a simple question such as, “How was your day?” Out of the five people sitting
around in the same room, only I was entirely present, which to me is the greatest example to show the
decline in communication skills due to text messages.
So the question is, “Are text messages shackling our ability to communicate face-to-face?”
Whether it may be verbal communication skills, written communication skills, or the needed skill of
listening to someone when they speak, a vital part of communication, texting has become a widespread
problem associated with them all. The popularity of texting has caused our social skills to decline by
engulfing our minds in technology instead of allowing us to be present when face-to-face conversations
are being held; our written communication skills to decline by allowing us to misuse grammar and
overuse abbreviations; and lastly, our effective communication skills in general to decline by repetitive
conversations that do not demonstrate passion, depth, or the need for reflective listening.
The article “SMS Texting and Its Potential Impacts on Students’ Written Communication Skills,”
written by Solomon Dansieh, focuses on how pervasive the use of SMS texting is on students writing
habits. Dansieh begins by offering information from a survey he conducted on the students of Wa
Polytechnic, which is a school of students who study English as a second language. He conducted 430
questionnaires to both the students and lecturers of the school after receiving concern from the faculty
and staff that communication was becoming poorer due to excessive texting. The mean year that the
students have studied English at Wa Polytechnic is around 18 years, so Dansieh considers them to have
a good concept on the language and its properties. Based on his survey, he affirms his argument that
text messaging has a major impact on students' performance and quality of work, due to the fact that
texting encourages abbreviations and non-conformity.
I couldn’t agree more with Solomon Dansieh, because his study strengthens my argument that
texting has costly effects on anyone’s ability to write correctly. Because the simple message system
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(SMS) throws the essential mechanics of writing such as grammar, syntax, punctuation, and
capitalization out of the window, it is hard to have written communication skills that are appropriately
developed. The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently is the reason we have
rules we must follow for our language, or any language for that matter. An individual cannot
communicate either way if the recipient cannot read the ever-changing abbreviations, acronyms, and no
usage language rules that the sender has incorporated into the entire text message.
David Crystal, author of the article, “2b or Not 2b,” has a very different opinion on the way
texting is shaping the way we communicate through writing. Crystal argues that texting is not harming
or restricting individuals on their written communication skills; it is actually broadening their skills and
creating not a decline, but an evolution. David Crystal begins by pointing out that the popular belief
about texting, which is the idea that texting is causing a decline in written communication skills, is
mistaken. He proceeds to strengthen his argument by bringing forth the notion that the way texts are
written, for example the abbreviations and broken linguistic rules, would not be readable if the proper
literacy awareness was not already established. He asserts, “There is no point in paying to send a
message if it breaks so many rules that it ceases to be intelligible” (337). What Crystal means is that
without a good understanding of the English language and the ability to write the language properly,
people would not even understand the abbreviations and incorrect grammar.
I disagree with David Crystal’s idea that people would not be able to understand SMS language
without the language already being hardwired into our brains, because I know countless people, myself
included, who are well educated, literate people but cannot read a text message written in such a
chaotic way, nullifying Crystal’s argument. Though I disagree with Crystal on most points that he brings
to attention, I do agree that abbreviations and the wrong use of grammar in a text here and there will
not destroy our ability to write effectively, because I am a perfect example of someone who occasionally
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shortens a word in a text message, but knows when to write effectively and appropriately. There is a
place in which it is acceptable and a place in which it is not; it is when these two are confused that the
problem comes into play. Unfortunately, the almost non-existent ability to distinguish when it is
appropriate to write without rules and when it is not shows that written communication is on a
downfall, because of how apparent text-like writing is when it should not be.
Another opposing view to my argument, Katie Hafner’s article, “Texting May Be Taking A Toll,”
emphases the expanding communication skills associated with texting. Since texting demands constant
communication, more conversations are held and people are held in contact with one another more
often. This is said to offer companionship and the promise of connectedness, therefore increasing
communication skills with one another to stay focused in continuing the conversations. Hafner states
that teenagers have such a huge interest in knowing what is going on at all times in the lives of their
friends and people around them, that they are almost afraid to not be connected anymore. This
continuous state of curiosity provides more communication to be held, increasing skills, or so Hafner
thinks.
The fact that people are afraid to not be connected at all times should be the first red flag when
talking about texting. Providing anxiety about being out of the loop is not a good thing and definitely is
not a positive aspect in regards to communication skills. I whole-heartedly disagree with Hafner’s claim
that texting increases communication skills by keeping people connected constantly, because although
the conversations are more frequent, they are repetitive, superficial, and dull. By focusing on the ability
to keep people in touch, Hafner overlooks the deeper problem that is effective communication. In order
for someone to demonstrate effective communication skills, one must listen, respond, and use that
information to continue the conversation. In a usual text message conversation, they result in the typical
“hey,” “what’s up,” “not much,” scenario, which demonstrates no communication skills whatsoever.
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The article, “Text Messaging: Is Texting Ruining The Art Of Conversation?” written by Martha
Irvine, offers a better understanding, in my opinion, on how effective communication skills have been
negatively affected by texting. Her article originates with a story of her daughter who texted Irvine from
her room upstairs about breakfast before she had even gotten out of bed. Whether or not her daughter
is just lazy, she uses this story to show how habituated to texting people are. With this personal story,
she brings to attention that people would rather send a text message over asking or talking to the other
individual in person. It is relevant because Irvine uses it as an example of how text messages have
contributed to the loss in communication skills, even as close as her own family.
Irvine concentrates on the idea that thousands of texts each day does keep people more
connected and therefore seem to create more communication opportunities, just as Hafner, but she
sticks to her argument that the conversation is not deep or meaningful, which is the issue of
communication now a days. Irvine is surely right about our issue in communication these days; everyone
is talking and yet no one is truly saying anything or listening. Although more people are talking to a
wider range of people in their day to day lives, the conversations are lacking crucial skills. Irvine implies
that people are just going through the motions of talking to each other instead of actually talking and
listening to what they are saying. Without meaningful conversations being held, the communication
itself would be meaningless. This situation, the lack of effective communication, is definitely ruining the
art of conversation.
Barbra Jolie, author of the article, “Teen Texting and Communication Skills,” makes it extremely
clear that texting is affecting both verbal and written communication skills in a negative way. Jolie
argues that with the rate of teen texting on the increase, as a result, training in face-to-face
communication skills may be required in the future. She states this, because of how quickly our
communication skills seem to be on the downfall due to text messages, such as the lack of actual
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conversations between people in a face-to-face setting. In regards to written communication, Jolie
considers the main issue associated with texting as the lack in proper grammar, spelling, and word
usage. Though Jolie makes it enormously clear where she stands on the argument of texting and
communication skills, she takes into consideration the benefits of having conversations via text, such as
being able to think about what you would like to say before you say it. With that said, she debates that
even this silver lining could be taken as a bad thing, since a slow response could be weakening the ability
to “think fast.”
I could not agree more with Jolie when she states that the only way text messaging has affected
our communication skill is in a negative way. When talking about training in communication skills that
may be required down the road for people so that they can effectively communicate with each other, I
find it humorously sad, because while I consider it very true, it depresses me to see our society declining
so rapidly to where this is could be an option. With more and more people steering away from face-toface conversations, vital communication skills are flying out the window. Skills such as eye contact,
undivided attention, and effective response are becoming harder and harder to come by. This is a huge
issue, because these are the skills that are needed to survive in the world, such as interviewing for a
scholarship or job opportunity. Once they are gone, our ability to effectively communicate will be gone
as well.
This is a very important topic, because texting has become a worldwide trend. This means that
the topic of communication skills declining affects almost everyone around the world, considering how
many are now consumed in their handheld devices. People no longer call each other, but instead send a
quick text message to start a conversation. Although more people are communicating through
technology on a day to day basis, the conversation seems to be less passionate and more along the lines
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of fake and repetitive. The communication, though appearing as an increase, really turns out to be a
decline in communication, since no real communication skills are being demonstrated.
Ultimately, this topic is important because communication itself is important. Communication is
how we exchange ideas, how we develop understandings, and how we interact each and every day with
one another. Texting has caused an increase in interaction with one another, but has diminished our
written communication skills, verbal communication skills, and effective communication skills as a whole
by taking away vital parts of communication in the process, such as active listening and responding.
With our ability to communicate effectively with each other falling rapidly, whether it be via spoken or
wrote, we all suffer.
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Works Cited
Crystal, David. “2b or Not 2b?” “They Say/I Say” The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing with
readings. Second Ed. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, Russel Durst. New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, 2012. 335-346. Print.
Dansieh, Solomon Ali. “SMS Texting and Its Potential Impacts on Students’ Written Communication
Skills.” International Journal of English Linguistics Vol. 1, No. 2. September (2011): 222-229.
Web. 28 April. 2011
Hafner, Katie. “Texting May Be Taking A Toll.” The New York Times Health. Brendan Smialowski, 25 May.
2009. Web. 26 May 2009.
Irvine, Martha. “Text Messaging: Is Texting Ruining The Art Of Conversation?” Huffington Post
Technology. Chris Gentilviso, 2 April. 2013. Web. 3 June 2012.
Jolie, Barbra. “Teen Texting and Communication Skills.” The Examiner. Sue Scheff, N. D. Web. 26 June
2012.