Texting Is Considered Creative

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Texting is a seismic shift to the English language. With over 6.1 trillion texts being sent a year, thousands of new abbreviations, initialisms and contractions are being created every day, therefore making it the fastest growing dialect in the world. Texting, also known as ‘multi modal communication’ has been in the centre of controversy for numerous years. It has been described as ‘innovative’ by some and ‘cliché’ or ‘slobbish’ by others. After analyzing, evaluating and interpretating data and opinions, it can be asserted that text and computer-mediated messages ARE creative, however only towards a specific audience and age group. To many, texting provides us with the opportunity to express and magnify our culture and identity through the letters, numbers and graphic symbols that we select. The mobile telephone works in the same manner as a diary, a cultural artifact, seen as significant and expressive by many mobile users. Texters learn to use socially authorized techniques when interacting with their peers and these methods are great references to their personal idiolects as well as their sociolect. SMS users learn that the ways in which they text takes on particular social meanings, signifying different aspects about their individuality... The writing/texting process itself is considered creative, as it is most definitely not a simple or basic concept when it comes to selecting the right characters to express yourself, especially within the short word limit given. After analyzing data and text transcripts, it has become evident that the majority of teenage texters use phonetic spelling on a day to day basis to represent themselves and their personality within a virtual environment. Teens feel as though using simple or standard English words is ‘dull’ and ‘boring’, so by adapting words to fit their own liking and individuality, they are creatively embodying
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