Spohn 1

Rebecca Spohn

10/31/19

ENC1101

Mrs. McGriff

Argument Essay
Technology, we use it and it is extremely important for us to be able to do things we

could not normally. However, at what cost? Texting and social media have allowed for such a

jump in range to communication between people and even countries that it is now invaluable, but

there are claims of it destroying the english language and a decline in communication in a one on

one type setting. There are many who say that this damages communication and vocabulary, as

well as social interaction; I say that this has damaged people’s use of the English language and

vocabulary; however, I do not agree that is has limited any kind of communication, or social

interaction.

There are claims as to how texting and social media damages the vocabulary. “David

Crystal, author of “2b or not 2b?” has said that ever since the arrival of printing - thought to be

the invention of the devil because it would put false opinions into people’s minds - people have

been arguing that new technology would have disastrous consequences for language” (899). It is

said that it will produce a laziness in the language and excuse poor spelling and grammar. Which

in turn means that there could be slang words produced, such as “omg”, “lol”, or even “wdym”.

These words turned into proper english is “oh my gosh”, “laugh out loud”, and “what do you

mean”. Even how people, who cannot spell whatsoever, use this as a “normal” way to type and
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text out their sentences. “M8 how do ya even f8.” Can easily be a sentence that is used in this

way, as well as many other ways things like this can be grammatically incorrect. I actually agree

with this, I agree that vocabulary has been suffering a bit thanks to how texting and social media

allows people to communicate. While there are pros to having “slang vocabulary”, like being

able to send quick texts in a short amount of time or even to make the sentence funny; there are

still more cons to these. Vocabulary is a big part of our language and is what allows us to make

sentences and say complex words. Jeremy Rifkin states in his online article Electronic

Interaction Is Making Americans Less Literate, “According to a national survey conducted by

the U.S. Department of Education [DOE], English literacy among college graduates has declined

dramatically in the past 10 years [since 1996]. Only 31 percent of college graduates today are

proficient in English literacy, compared with 40 percent just a decade ago” (Paragraph 3). There

has been a huge drop in the ability to use vocabulary not only correctly but in general.

Another way texting and social media is used is for communication, like connecting with

people who possibly live in another country or state. The main issue with this however, is that

people say that having communication like this, only damages the one-on-one communication

that people would have. For example, children on parent, parent on parent, and any other kind of

human communication. People fear that because there are ways to communicate online and over

technology, that there will no longer be any sort of human interaction. There is not really any

regulation with this, Steven Pinker even states that “the solution is not to bemon technology but

to develop strategies of self control…” (1031). This is basically saying that there needs to be

some self control when it comes to technology and when to get off or use it. However, there is

not always the ability for something like that. Working on a project for school or work, doing

your job that could easily be communicating to people over a computer, and many other things,
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there is not always the ability to just “shut it off”; especially when it comes to trying to learn and

understand certain subjects or research. Pinker also writes “Fortunately the Internet and

information technologies are helping us manage, search and retrieve our collective intellectual

output at different scales, from Twitter and previews to e-books and online encyclopedias”

(1031).While yes, there could easily be the “get off your phone and talk/go to bed” being said

here, but there is also the fact that it depends on who it’s directed towards. Children, teens, and

even adults will use their phones if the on-going conversation is not directed towards them or

even something they would have an input in. Communication is just really situational, real-life or

online/over technology.

Social interaction, something that the human race is built upon. We interact with each

other everyday whether we want to or not, and thanks to the internet and social media that

followed after the internet came around. People say that social media damages social interaction.

There are many downsides to this kind of interaction, one of them being that you can easily talk

to so many people, conversations can be mixed up and confused. George Graff, writer of I Say

They Say states that, “..too many online exchanges end up being not true conversations but a

series of statements without clear relationships to one another” (167). However, while this might

be an issue there are still quite a few good perks to social interaction. One is that you can interact

and talk to pretty much anyone from around the world just as long as they have an internet

connection, get knowledge from others in different cultures, and so many other things. Graff also

says, “With just a few taps on a keyboard, we can be connected with what others have said not

only through-out history, but right now, in the most remote places” (166). Social interaction

through social media opens so many more doors that we wouldn’t have had before without the

internet. It creates so many possibilities for connection and reconnection, connecting with old
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friends and family, connecting with school teachers when your at home and away from school.

Social interactions have really not been hindered at all with the introduction of the internet and

texting, in fact, it only made the interactions better than they possibly could have before.

Overall, there are good and bad things about texting and social media, no matter how it is

looked at something will go wrong. However, we can’t look away from all the good it has done

for us as well; without the internet we would not have access to the types of knowledge and

information we do now, as well as being able to reach people in far and reclusive places. While

these could be considered/are destroying our vocabulary and communication to a point we

cannot at this point and time live without social media and texting. We are reliant, no matter if

people want to deny it, everything we worked towards with the help of these extended

communication functions, getting rid of them would only make us go in reverse.

Works Cited
Crystal, David. “2b or Not 2b?,” Everyone’s an Author with Reedings, Marilyn Moller,

W.W. Norton’s Company, 2017, 899-907.

Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say I Say: The Moves That Matter in

Academic Writing. W.W. Norton’s Company, 2018.

Pinker, Steven. “Mind over Mass Media,'' Everyone's an Author with Reedings, Marilyn Moller,

W.W. Norton’s Company, 2017, 1029-1032.

Rifkin, Jeremy. "Electronic Interaction Is Making Americans Less Literate." What is the Impact

of Cyberlife?, edited by Andrea Demott, Greenhaven Press, 2008. At Issue. Gale In

Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3010474211/OVIC?u=lincclin_sjrcc&sid=OVIC&xid=e

ebadd4c. Accessed 30 Oct. 2019. Originally published as "Virtual Companionship,"

International Herald Tribune, 11 Oct. 2006.