Letter to the editor

To Ms. Clark, and whom it may concern.

To all those who have had a texting free childhood, this article inaccurately explains the issue regarding the lack of language abilities amongst today’s youth and language erosion. Its author has pinned the blame on technology. Technology is a great tool that can be utilized in order to educate people. Due to the Internet and other technological phenomenons, communication has never been faster. As a result: language, in attempt to keep up with technology, has been modified. However if you ask Ms. Clark she would claim that it has been impinged. Words made shorter, letters mixed with numbers, a catastrophe in the eyes of language purists. However that does not mean that children are no longer capable of learning and possessing miraculous language skills. Ms. Clark, schools such as Mrs. Jordan’s highly respected school are responsible for teaching children the English language. As for your statement that “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.” I can assure you the individual is only going to do what they set their mind to do. If one wants to read a novel, then Facebook nor any other social media platform can stop them! I think schools play a big role in sprouting an individual’s love for education, rather than pointing the fingers at social media platforms and other technological devices we should see what we can do to find a solution. To back up my statements with historical context, you should know language began as a form of speech, and then writing was developed to reflect language in a visual form. So now, I ask you Ms. Clark, is gr8 not a visual representation of a word you would use in daily life to explain a feeling that lies somewhere between good and fantastic? If you can speak like writing, then you might also want to write like you speak. That’s where texting comes in. Texting is an expansion of one’s linguistic ability; it does not take the place of another! One may learn a new language but by no means should this new language impact ones ability to speak the other language. I would encourage schools to shape our youth into intelligent beings whom have a love for education and an appreciation for language.

Sincerely,

Dana Alsuwaidi