TED talk summary

The TED talk by John McWhorter covers many points in detail. For example it covers the point that texting is a new form of writing that younger people have developed. This means that young people are using a different way of writing in text to how they would write on paper. In the speakers opinion this means that they are bilingual, since younger people are able to balance both forms of writing, therefore are able to use each in particular situations, without it having an effect on their intelligence. The speaker also disagreed on people thinking that texting is ruining the structure of our language since it is very 'loose' which is how he described it.

Similar to the first point a main point that the speaker put across was that we text how we speak, therefore it should not be considered as writing. He also mentioned that language was originally just speech, therefore he thinks that people cannot describe texting as a way of ruining our language. To prove this point John used quotes from as far back as 1841 from very intelligent people speaking about the fact that people cannot spell or use language properly. Due to this his point is shown that language hasn't always been perfect so people cannot blame texting for having a bad effect on the structure of our language.

Furthermore another point made was that words are beginning to be used differently in text over time. An example that he used was 'lol', which he said is becoming a word that isn't used to show humour, which was originally its use. This means that texting language is developing, therefore may be harder to understand. However the speaker made it clear that texting is a way of speech, which means that it shouldn't necessarily be correct, and that it is more important that the word is understood in the conversation by the other person.

In my opinion I agree with John McWhorter on the fact that texting isn't ruining our language. I think this because I see very great similarities in the way that we speak to the way that we text, therefore texting is the same as speech, since it is just a casual conversation. The main point that I agree with him on is that young people are able to do both. Perhaps I would disagree with his opinion if texting was effecting the way that young people write formally, however it is clear that people are able to balance both.

Opinions

In different situations people adapt their accents to suit the people they are with, but why? For example the way you speak in a job interview compared to how you speak around your friends is perhaps very different. Despite the fact that you are born with your accent, many people feel it is appropriate to change it slightly when speaking to different people. Some people would agree that this is unnecessary, however i think that it helps you to communicate better with different groups of people.

The most common situations where changing you accent slightly would be useful are on tv for example. If a person is on tv watched by people from all different regions, it is very important that they can be understood by most. Although i think that this is important, it may not be appropriate for certain areas of television.

On the other hand, i dont think that it is appropriate to change your accent most of the time, since it takes alot of effort to change your accent for someone elses sake. A particular situation which i dont agree is useful to adapt your accent is when around friends. This is because your friends should accept your accent and you should develop your communication with them. Despite the fact that some may disagree, i think that everyone speaks slightly different around their family in comparison the their friends. This is because

to be continued