2b or not 2b Summary

Joshua Hahn-Varona
1/28/15

2b or not 2b Summary

   Texting and instant messaging has be come a part of everyone's lives over the last decade. My generation has come to incorporate messaging as a part of our regular routine with ease. However, the older generation of my time may have trouble with learning the new ways of communication and because of this, it is no surprise that some may be completely against texting and instant messaging. So much so that they make emotional, not so thought out arguments as to how texting will ruin language.

   One argument about how texting will ruin language is that abbreviations and acronyms ruin the way people utilize grammar and spelling. Acronyms and abbreviations have been used in language for hundreds of years, as David Crystal explains in "2b or not 2b?" Crystal also talks about how our generation is actually better at reading and writing in part because of texting and instant messaging.

   To be fair to the people who believe texting ruins language, texting and instant messaging have spell check and word correction integrated into them so that people don't completely butcher words. However, texting and instant messaging do not have a grammar check. Because of this, from what I have noticed anyways, many people are unaware of the differences between words like "you're" and "your" and others like "their," "there," and "they're" and is quite annoying to see, but that doesn't mean that these grammar mistakes are destroying language as a whole.

   "2bor not 2b?" gives great insight on how texting and instant messaging actually helps language rather than hurts it, and should be read by anyone who wishes to understand the effects of today's ways of communication.

Community Episode

Community Episode
1/20/15
By Joshua Hahn-Varona

This episode of The Community makes of people who feel that because they have a lot of followers on Twitter or "friends" on Facebook that they are "powerful" people.

They might have called the app "MeowMeowBeenz" becuase cats are a big part of the internet?

Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not be Tweeted

Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not be Tweeted
1/20/15
By Joshua Hahn-Varona

Although Gladwell does not say so directly, he assumes that social media is a weak way of starting revolutions and pushing for social change. This, however, is not the case. Many social revolutions like the Arab Spring revolutions in the early 2000s among other, more recent social revolutions have been started on social media websites such as Twitter.

Though I agree with Gladwell that "friends" and followers on Facebook and Twitter do not necessarily have strong bonds between one another, I think having and being a "friend" or follower can bring people together when it comes to social change.

One thing I noticed about this article was that it was written in 2010. Now I am not one hundred percent sure but, in 2010, Twitter specifically wasn't as much as a part of our lives as it is today. Today, we have Twitter in our morning news. The news castors will say "Tweet us your thought on this with the hash tag: X."  They then show incoming Tweets on screen with people's thought on the recent story.

I don't think Gladwell understands how strong social media can be. Social media is great start to revolutions. Social media may more strongly influence a revolution in some countries than others, but the impact social media has is still significant.