Text Messaging

Clearly there is a significant divide in the opinions regarding text messaging, or ‘text speak’. In the first article, John Humphreys takes a very strong stance on the subject, claiming that texters are

“Destroying it [English language]: pillaging our punctuation; savaging our sentences; raping our vocabulary. And they must be stopped." 

He also expresses much discontent with the OED’s decision to remove the hyphen from their latest edition. In the second article, John Sutherlands review of the text message phenomenon appears much more analytic than opinionated, and the third article attempts to refute John’s claims with statistical evidence.

Before I had even read the third article I already disagreed with John’s views, but it does a pretty good job of reinforcing my initial thoughts. To summarise John’s article; he believes and states quite strongly that the English language is being destroyed by those who have embraced text messaging. He also believes, wrongly, that the main opposition to this opinion is the view that:

“...language changes.

It is constantly evolving and anyone who tries to get in the way is a fuddy-duddy who deserves to be run down.”

I disagree with John’s argument not for this reason but because I feel he has misjudged the impact that text messaging has and will have, which is;

“Our written language may end up as a series of ridiculous emoticons and ever-changing abbreviations.”

I fail to see where he has drawn this conclusion from. Text messaging has been widespread as far back as the late 90s, and has had little or no effect on the language I read away from my mobile. Every other form of written communication that I read is still using proper English; newspapers, magazines, books, textbooks, blog posts, any successful website. I have been texting for around 10 years and have never caught myself slipping a ‘U’ or a ‘LOL’ into any form of written communication away from my mobile. Even when I am using text messaging, I rarely abbreviate or shorten words and take care to use correct punctuation, as do most of my friends. Perhaps it is just my social circle, but I do not know anywhere where text-speak is acceptable apart from when texting. 

Text messaging is designed to be short and precise, to be used when you are too busy to write a letter or make a phone call – it is an alternative to ‘proper’ communication, not a replacement. Perhaps when it becomes acceptable to use text speak in exams and newspaper headlines, John’s argument will be warranted. Until then, he is making a mountain of a mole hill.

Rise of Twitter

The 11 billion dollar idea

In just nine years, the masterminds behind the internet sensation that is Twitter have managed to turn their concept into a product that is tipped for an $11bn stock market floatation^[1]. Boasting an active user-base of around 200 million^[2] and even securing an entry in the Collins dictionary^[3], its clear that Twitter has become a part of the mainstream consciousness; but how did it get there?

Twitters origins lie in a “daylong brainstorming session” held in March 2006 by a small group of board members from the podcasting company Odeo, who envisioned a service similar to SMS messaging yet modernised for the internet age.^[4] The outcome followed suit; a collection of microblogs where people post their passing thoughts as 'tweets' and 'follow' other users. Imagine Facebook, but with updates limited to 140 characters and less invasion of privacy.

By the end of 2007, Twitter was processing 400,000 'tweets' per quarter, rising substantially to  100 million per quarter by the end of 2008. By February 2010, Twitter users were publishing an astonishing 50 million tweets per day.^[5] Many attribute this growth to the participation of famous figures to the Twitter circle – analysts claim Oprah Winfrey alone generated a 43% spike in visitors to the site.^[6] Before long famous figures from all sections of society were tweeting away, some of them causing major headaches for their PR teams; Chris Brown, Amanda Bynes and Helen Flanagan have found themselves in hot water after Twitter blunders, just to name a few.^[7]

The impact of the site has been profound - any successful media organisation now has a dedicated Twitter correspondent as do the heads of state in 123 countries.^[8]The reach of the Arab Spring protests is largely credited to Twitter^[9], which is described by Global Language Monitor as a “strategic weapon...which has the apparent ability to re-align the social order in real time, with little or no advanced warning.”^[10] In 2009 The Guardian revealed that the government was planning to teach children on new media tools including Twitter, a move which was condemned by the then shadow education minister Michael Gove - whose criticisms were rather ironically distributed to party members on Twitter itself via the Conservative Party's page.

Twitter usage reached new heights in 2010 when the first unassisted post was Tweeted from the International Space Station by astronaut T.J. Creamer and by November, up to 12 messages a day were being posted from @NASA_Astronauts account^[11]. These days everybody and their dog has a Twitter account; the Deli Llama tweets daily^[12] and the Bank of England recently held a question and answer session regarding the economy using Twitter as its medium.^[13] The real question is, can Twitter pass the test of time?

As revolutionary as it may seem, the track record for social networks in general is not a great one. Many other social platforms have experienced similar levels growth in the past before witnessing a mass abandoning from its users in favour of the latest social fad. MySpace, a veteran in the social networking scene, lost its place as web-users favourite way to waste time with the arrival of Bebo, an Irish social network, which users then dropped shortly after in favour of Facebook. MySpace and Bebo failed to update their interface and features until everybody had already left for Facebook, and by then it was too late. If Twitter wants to stay relevant, it will have to learn from the mistakes of the past top dogs or risk falling victim to the same capital flight of its userbase. Until then, happy tweeting!

^{[1]http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/science-technology/twitter-set-11bn-flotation-year-2270972
[2]http://mashable.com/2012/12/18/twitter-200-million-active-users/
[3]http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/twitter
[4]http://www.140characters.com/2009/01/30/how-twitter-was-born/
[5]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/7297541/Twitter-users-send-50-million-tweets-per-day.html
[6]http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9131935/Oprah_s_Midas_touch_gives_Twitter_a_43_boost
[7]http://www.closeronline.co.uk/2013/08/the-most-embarrassing-celebrity-twitter-mistakes-from-helen-flanagan-to-amanda-bynes
[8]http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/01/hail-to-the-tweet/
[9]http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2011/01/could-tunisia-be-the-next-twitter-revolution/177302/
[10]http://www.languagemonitor.com/2011/02/
[11]http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/jan/HQ_M10-011_Hawaii221169.html
[12]https://twitter.com/DalaiLama
[13]http://www.cityam.com/blog/1382090541/bank-england-launches-twitter-qa}

Writing about me

The Guardian 

02^nd May 2020

The New Era

Shockwaves were sent through the British establishment yesterday as Jake Smith secured a landslide victory for the Liberal Democrat party, marking the parties first ever general election victory. Beating the incumbent Labour party by almost 11%, Smith gained the largest share of votes since Tony Blair's landmark victory in 1997.

 Outside number 10 this morning, Smith thanked his supporters and insisted he would stand by the pledges made in his election campaign.

"At election time, not just in Britain but across the globe, these campaigns are won on promises of hope and change for the future. All to often however, when the smoke has settled and the lights are dimmed, the familiar feeling of hopelessness and resent creep upon us as it becomes apparent that the promises made to us are unnatainable. I want to make this time different. You, the people of Britain have spoken and your message is clear: we are not satisfied with the status quo. After 100 years of what has effectively been a two party system, it is time for real change. Change for our time, and change for the future. Change that will leave a legacy that our grandchildren will be proud of, and that will impact their lives for the better. We cannot fix the world overnight, but from this moment we can begin to lay the foundations for the future they deserve."

Since elected party leader in 2016, Smith has helped transform the nations perspective of the party, away from the painful memories of Nick Clegg's disasterous role in the 2010 coalition and into the image of a new, modernised party that is ready to take on the challenges of the 21st century. A fierce critic of Labour and Conservative foreign policy, his most popular pledge is the promise of a national referendum on any proposed military action overseas, unless in the event of an immediate and direct threat to national security. Other popular policies include a multi-billion pound investment in high speed internet infrastructure, national curriculum reform and the closure of numerous tax loopholes. He has also vowed to generate 70% of the nations electricity from renerable sources by 2030.

Supporters are gathering in Westminster today to celebrate what they call a 'new era' in British politics.

"I had never voted before but after the painful decade we have been through, i felt it was time to make my voice heard. The Labour and Conservative parties are outdated and full of rich, old MPs who are out of touch with the population. You could barely put a cigarette paper between their policy, and this is the Liberal Democrat's chance to show us they are different."

 Not everybody is celebrating however, as senior Labour figures accross the board call on Ed Milliband to resign after his embarrassing defeat. Unite, one of Labours biggest supporters, have already announced plans to cut ties with the party in the event that they cannot secure a victory, citing concerns over the 'future direction' of the party. Unite representatives were unavaliable for comment.

 

Geoffrey's Monologue

Geoffrey is the local Vicar, and husband of Susan. It is Sunday evening and he is sat in his office reflecting on his day.

Another fantastic session in the house of the Lord this morning. It was a tad chilly as the boiler was out again, but that was more thanm compensated for by the warmth of the crowd as i englightened them with the Lord's message. Well, with the exception of Susan. She was late again, for the second week running. I do worry about the woman somethimes. Semon went swimmingly, as usual. I decided to be a little controversial on this occasion and tackle the subject of love making, perhaps in the hope that Susan might give the topic a little more thought at home, but it was to no avail.

Anyway, i could barely contain myself as i revealed that we were to be blessed with a visit from the Bishop after the Easter festivities. My brothers and sisters shared my enthusiasm and chattered excitedly, again with the exception orf Susan who appeared indifferent to the wonderful news. She must have still been digesting my capitvating Sermon.

Half hoping to be suprised when we returned home, i was welcomed only by the same chicken wing dish that we had every Sunday afternoon. I attempted to raise the subject again but Susan was more interested in the Parish magazine. Proceeding to my study, i wondered what i was doing wrong. Maybe it's just me.

An interesting piece of text

Here is a label taken from the outside of an Innocent smoothie bottle. The text is of a commercial nature, which intends to attract potential customers, before informing them about the contents of the bottle and why they should buy it. This piece of writing is likely to be displayed on a shop shelf where it will be scrutinised by consumers prior to purchasing the product, so it is important for the writing to be clear and concise whilst also enticing.

The style of writing is varied across the packaging, with short and sharp factual bullet points on the left side, to a more personal and light-hearted piece on the far right.