Learning to think in a digital world... continued..

Just a further thought on Maryanne Wolf's article 'Learning to think in a digital world'...

It is a given that technology is changing and is subsequently affecting language in the way that we read and write, but this is nothing new. Language has been evolving ever since it began.

'Text speak' is one example of the effect that technology is having on our language. (What I'm referring to when I say 'text speak' is the abbreviated language of mobile phones and instant messaging on the internet).

An article discussing the use of 'text speak' can be found at this link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3354233/Text-speak-U-2-can-communic8.html

This is an interesting article because it not only talks about the background of text speak and the way that it encourages a more inventive reader/writer, but also considers the future. It brings to light concerns about the way that digital media will affect out ability to recall the past, as so much of the communication that we do is via mobile phone/email/messaging online which is often instantly deleted leaving no trace behind.

The link below is another (brief) article favouring the use of 'text speak' among children and the way that it could almost be deemed as 'a little brain workout', encouraging the use of concentration and attention:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6221875/Text-message-speak-not-harmful-to-childrens-spelling-says-research.html

I believe it is true that technology is effecting the way that we read and write, but this is the nature of language. It is constantly evolving. Just as we use 'text speak' now to communicate in a more efficient manner, shorthand was a form of efficient communication in the past, with the earliest dating back as far as Xenophon's shorthand to write the memoirs of Socrates.

Andrew Robinson describes the best known form of shorthand invented by Isaac Pitman in the 19th century...

'Some 65 letters are used, consisting of 25 single consonants, 24 double consonants and 16 vowel sounds. However, most vowels are omitted.'

This to me has the same principle as 'text speak' that we use today, omitting vowels for efficiency in communicating a message. So it would seem that yes, language is evolving, and technology is having an effect, but perhaps what we should be concerned about is not so much how it is evolving but how we preserve this in order to look back and learn from this in the future.