Embedded below is a TED talk presented by linguist John McWhorter, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. In it, he argues that texting, contrary to popular belief, is not facilitating linguistic regression in today’s youth; rather, it is merely a medium of writing as we speak. McWhorter sets the stage: speech developed far before writing, and it really wasn’t until the introduction of texting that we had a method of writing that was structurally and gramatically congruent with our speech patterns. Furthermore, McWhorter asserts that any “expansion of linguistic repertoire” is cognitively beneficial, such as bilingualism or bidialectalism; such expansion, in the case of texting, is (at least partically) characterized by the development of pragmatic (aka discourse) particles––the textism “lol” is used as an example. As far as complaints of lacking spelling and command of grammar go, McWhorter traces the outcry back to 1841 and beyond, when the concept texting wasn’t even remotely entertained. The concept of our youth lacking linguistic sophistication is not a new concern.
Figure 1: this (rather outdated) comic pokes fun at youths’ “inability” to comprehend gramatically correct sentences due to habitual exposure to the truncations of early texting. Image via PaperRater.
This is actually the second time I watched this speech, and I found McWhorter’s line of argumentation to be far less compelling the second time around. I’m not convinced he’s incorrect in saying that texting doesn’t negatively affect writing, but I’m not sure he comes to that conclusion for the right reasons. While I appreciate the developmental distinctions between writing like we speak and speaking like we write, McWhorter doesn’t really touch on how the repeated use of incorrect grammar and punctuation (among other things) impacts academic writing, or even drafting emails. Many studies reach the same overall conclusion that McWhorter does––that texting has no influence on writing––but their reasoning is that youth and people in general are able to contextualize each form of communication and the conventions that accompany them. That is to say, the brain knows when to use “I regret to inform you” and when to use “yo im rlly sorry but.” This, as a line of logic, makes more sense to me as an audience member.
Regarding presentation style, McWhorter adopts a well-paced, reasonable tone––he speaks slowly and calmly, laying a line of reasoning to lead his audience towards his overall conclusion, occasionally punctuating his dialogue with jokes to keep the mood light. In this way, he effectively conveys information whilst maintaining agreeability and relatability. This, I feel, is the core distinction between a formal speech and a talk: a talk is a conversation in which the speaker reaches into the lives and experiences of the audience and provides insight. A speech is a carefully composed rhetorical agenda, and is not always meant to empathize with its viewers––it speaks at them, rather than with them, as the talk does.