How has technology affected conversation arts, journaling, and formal letter writing and why does it matter?

by Djene Keita,

This is my reflection on one of the study questions about" Language and Communication" in the Honors Study Guide.

 The Human species develops language to communicate and express thoughts. Among the many ways of communicating such as body language, spoken language is  singularly used by the humans and, that has distinguished our specie from other species living on the earth. The emergence of technology in the 17th century and its ongoing evolution has significantly improved our lifes and the figure of the world.  Thanks to technology, a huge progress has been made in different aspects of life. The creation of Internet, Television, Cell phones, etc… has brought convenience and added luxury to our life style. Consequently, communication has become easier and the use of spoken language has diminished.  Although technology has had a significant impact on our lifes, it is essential to point out that its evolution has also been a drawback in the advancement  of language and communication in our society.

 

As technology continues to widely spread throughout the world, electronics mean of communication has substituted verbal language. Emails and text messages have become the one primary ways of communicating for our generation. Thus, conservation arts, journalism, and formal writing are being left behind. Previously,the younger generations had  been the major group mostly engrossed by the magic of technology; however, the older generations has also adopted these new ways for communication. Whether it is in school, offices and even on the road, it is commonplace to see people of all age texting or sending emails via electronic advices. This has not only raised concerns because of the many car accidents and health issues linked to them but also, because of the effect it is having on language and communication. Unaware of the consequences of constantly using emails and text messages instead language, many people in today’s society prefer texting and emailing rather than actually  speaking with other people. One of my friends told me, “I like texting now rather than having speaking over the phone. When texting, I do not have to write complete words or sentences; I just use abbreviations. It is fast and easy.” Nevertheless, this is impeding the development of language and writing skills .The ability to learn to be a good speaker can only be developed if one practices speaking by having conversation with other. Texting and emailing therefore stand as barriers that prevent one from developing those skills. Many college professors complain about the inability of college students to use formal writing in their papers. This is a challenging problem to solve because, many of us are used to writing informally when sending text messages and emails.  We use “gonna” instead of “going to” and we love abbreviations such as “b4, abt, 2nite, lol,  ASAP” etc…The use these abbreviations prevents us from learning  correct spellings and hinders our ability to become strong writers. Likewise, the meaning of the information can be easily changed through the use of electronics as a mean for communication. when typing too fast on the keyboard, we often commit typographical errors and write something that we do not intend to write. This is  also  a contributing  factor that modifies the meaning of the information that is being transmitted.

If technology such as email and texting continue to outshine verbal language as a form of communication, many languages such as English, French, Spanish and others will suffer as a result.