Professors, Linguists, and even parents have been arguing for many years about the pros and cons of texting, some might argue and say it decreases the students’ ability to use proper grammar and vocabulary, letting students butcher English words freely but others believe it enhances the way we learn about Vocabs and the English language in general. So, the question is, does texting ruins literacy skills? I believe the answer is NO, it doesn’t, and here’s why!

“Texting” By Asterfolio, Unsplash

In the book Bad Ideas About Writing, author Christopher Justice explains the misconception about texting, The title of his essay, and the topic that he signifies the idea that texting destroys one’s ability to have literacy skills. According to,” Texting Ruins Literacy Skills,” Justice argues that it’s just a myth, and stresses that it’s crucial to end this myth.   

Justice gives a reason why it’s crucial “One reason is that in many contexts, texting allows writers more time than speech to formulate their thoughts, and like other types of electronic media, texting also allows ample opportunities to revise and organize one’s thoughts. Second, the sudden and rapid popularity of texting is radically disproportionate to illiteracy rates.” (Justice, 310) In another word, a writer can express their ideas or feelings more efficiently by just texting than through talking Furthermore, texting provides clarity of someone’s thoughts. In his second reasoning, the author states, since everyone is texting and most people do not think texting hurts our literacy, if that was true, the literacy rate would’ve decreased and we would’ve stopped texting. Also, it is worth mentioning, this generation is by far literate than any other generation that lived before it. 

“Text Notification” by Jamie-street, Unsplash

In Jessica Gross’s TED blog post, “Texting as a “miraculous thing”: 6 ways our generation is redefining communication“, Jessica paraphrases the TED Talk speaker and linguist John McWhorter by writing “texting shouldn’t be categorized as a written language –but as [a] speech.”, Through a linguist perspective, McWhorter strongly believes that texting encourages a strong form of communication through writing, as brief as it may be.

 “Message Apps” By Adem AY, Unsplash

There are dozens of slang words and phrases many students text in their everyday communication, such as FYI, WYA, BTW, etc. Justice explains that those abbreviations are not new in the linguist world people have been using abbreviations for many years and we shouldn’t be surprised. Justice further explains “Ultimately, the abbreviated language that characterizes texting discourse is a continuation of a historical trend that reveals how people have creatively used language for conciseness and efficiency,” what he saying is, it’s just a generation difference and creativity that made people think it’s a new trend but history shows that’s not true.

In conclusion, Christopher Justice, Jessica Gross, and Jhon McWhorter’s ideas came together in the essay “Texting Ruins Literacy Skills” on Bad Ideas About Writing. Texting not only improves users’ ability to read and write it is also one of the fastest ways to convey information to others. By texting, one learns how to spell words regularly which enhances one’s Literacy skills. 

Works Cited

Justice, Christopher. “Texting Ruins Literacy Skills” in Bad Ideas About Writing. Edited by Cheryl E.Ball and Drew M. Loewe, 30-33.

Jessica Gross’s TED blog post, “Texting as a ‘Miraculous Thing’: 6 Ways our Generation is Redefining Communication”