Txtng is killing language. JK!!! - John McWhorter
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- Does texting mean the death of good writing skills? John McWhorter posits that there's much more to texting -- linguistically, culturally -- than it seems, and it's all good news.
Talk by John McWhorter.
I have watched this at least a hundred times, and I keep coming back to it for some reason.
This was actually quite funny. Also, I agree with the comments, no one has ever said slash lmao
I personally don't use much in the way of text speak, but I appreciate the outlook that isn't constantly "the sky is falling" as is CONSTANTLY happening as he shows around 10 minutes.
What's being missed (even my McWhorter himself perhaps) is that for the entire 13 minutes, McWhorter "speaks how he writes." His verbal style is much closer to the Edward Gibbon example he uses than it is to the texts that he shows. Why? Because creating an utterance worth pondering, considering etc. seems to require a certain level of formality and sophistication. Sure, texting is new technology and is evolving a linguistic style...but so what? It is a linguistic style suited to trivialities. (Try imagining MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, or the Gettysburg address, as a text or tweet.) Too often, having to follow the rules and conventions around writing (and speech that sounds as if it were written) is wrongly disparaged as an imposition handed down by the powers that be....when in fact, being articulate in speech and written language is empowering. Being told that acquiring writing and verbal skills equivalent to a tweet is "plenty good enough for you" is a disservice. In fact, the "teachers from long ago" who, in McWhorters presentation, are forever handwringing that "kids these days don't write well" are actually grieving about something else: That the majority of their students squander their potential, and are content to attain a verbal and written competency that makes them ripe to be little more than dupes and pawns. The kind of people who, for instance, read a tweet that says "Will be wild" and then unreflectively storm a nation's capitol.
first time i hear of the 'slash' thing.. when i want to change the subject i just start the sentence with a 'btw...'
It's like reading old telegrams. It wasn't quite "instant", so it was more a hybrid of writing and speaking, but since you paid for each letter, in many ways it was like Twitter and texting on steroids.
i would like to add that dictionaries and written language is obsolete with silent letters and no practical use as spoke language.
"There is, in texting, a convention which is... "L. O. L." " 6:23
Interesting talk !
a new language, simple evolution... yeah I think I get it, I still don't really like it when I find it in a notebook or when chatting on facebook, but now I get it.
what he means by "writing" is books,
the main difference between books and texting is:
teksting is a dialog
books are monologues
forget showing our texts to people from previous century, i am 23 years old and i couldnt understand texts of my 7 year younger sister and her friends, there is annihilation of orthography, orthology and solecisms are all over the place.
Am I the only one who texts with capital letters, proper grammar, and punctuation?
No, I am with you, Sir.
Very entertaining speech :)
Just because you don't like the way people speak and write doesn't mean that they're wrong. So why even critizise there writing or there speech?
*their c’mon learn to write
Lol jk 😂
What is sametiming? I looked it up on Google, but the term is apparently so recent that I couldn't find anything about it.
Also, sorry for being so out of touch. I'm gettin' old... :)
Brilliant!
language classes are kinda weird: they prepare you for speaking/writing in bygone terms.
I need the name of the book where u have mentioned this explanation, please
i knew it, i had seen this before... y u upload talks from tedtalksdirector
literally nobody uses slash
Since he gave an authentic use of it, someone ovbiously does. So literally is the wrong word there.
Nobody uses 'slash' like that...
Damnit Susan, get your shit together.
French woman at 11:24 was not amused.
The way he says "lol" makes me cringe.
Another fine video filed under the "don't be a judgmental prick header".
Then again "Don't Judge" is a really old saying anyway.
'lol' is used in a few ways. How much did he study this? People do punctuate when they speak. You can hear him start a new sentence. He did not talk about the addiction to texting. Or why people would rather text than deal with the ones in front of them. Most kids watching would text before he finished talking.
Nice judgemental and baseless comment.
French woman at 11:23 not amused
YOLOSWAGJESUS4LIFE
no entiendo nada
so seem hip/cool/go with the trends
lmao i cried XD
LAWL
nope even uses slash but love this video yolo swag yolo
speak for yourself. i speak like that all the time
Why does this guy have these random text segments? lol, stalker.
A female perhaps.
LOL #summerfun JK #nofilter YOLO BRB ROtfl YOLO YOLO LOL #YOLO
lol!
LAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWL jajajajajajajjaja
Babanahahaha
me 2
then why are millenials and generation y so weak at formal writing lol?
Did you even watch the video? People being bad at formal writing is not a new thing. Not to mention, what's your source for them being bad at it in the first place?