INTRODUCTION
The rapidly growing rate of phone technology at this
modernized generation is kind of disturbing. It seems that anywhere you can see
people glued to their phones’ screen, fingers typing away. On sidewalks, school
premises, even at the crowded places. Majority of these people are teenagers.
What are some of the effects that texting is having on
the teen literacy? That is the question that the researcher explores in this
paper. The researcher tackles about the impacts that texting is making on
teenagers, the impacts that making the teenagers’ language and writing skills
nowadays.
Text messaging, or texting, is the act of typing
and sending a brief, electronic message between two or more mobile phones or
fixed or portable devices over a phone network according to. The term
originally referred to messages sent using the Short Message
Service or SMS; it has grown to include messages containing image, video,
and sound content, known as MMS messages. The sender of a text
message is known as a texter, while the service itself has different
colloquialisms depending on the region. It is simply referred to as a text here
in Philippines. (Wikipedia Foundation Inc., 2013)
I.
Background of the Study
Most new technologies such as text messaging emerge on
the social and academic scene. Many people are cautious and untrusting of new
technologies that they worry about the riff it could cause in the talk of
literacy. It is important for academics to embrace the importance
of bringing daily literacies used by younger generations to engage them more
critically in the talk of language and technology. (Thurlow, 2006)
Based on John Myhra’s article, “Negative
Effects of Texting in the Classroom”, the over-use of texting has been damaging
to the way students write formally in the school premises and even in the
society. The character limitations of text messages have caused students to
form their own style of writing and terminologies. This style has caused them
to carry it over to formal academic writing projects. Students’ writings are
little to no depth, terrible grammar, and are abbreviating almost every word
they write. Texting has negatively affected the way students write. (Myhra,
2010)
II.
Objective of the Study