What are the effects cell phones have on literacy?

Answer 1

literacy quality decreases (ex: frequent spelling errors, incomplete sentence structures, wrong grammar, etc)

Extensive research has not yet been done on this topic, mostly because cell phones have not been around long enough to have completed these types of studies. However, researchers have theorized about the possible connection between cell phones and lower literacy rates, because of two main reasons. The first is that many cell phones have games or apps that take up much of the time children could use doing school work or reading. The second is that "text speak" is becoming more and more common, causing improper grammar and spelling to be used in schools. I'm sure more research will be available before long.

Answer 2

Reports from education environments across the world are citing texting as a key issue to young people developing their speaking, listening and written skills. As communication is a vital key or essential skill in life, industry and commerce have supported these reports and their findings. Issues encountered in summery are very poor spelling skills in the language of the young persons country, use of abbreviated phrases when talking such as saying OMG and LOL rather than their completed formation. Employers and education evaluators are very concerned that use of such written skills are now finding their way in to documents and work practices and often these have to be checked and reworked to meet even the most minimal standard of language use. Examination boards across the world are seeing potential passes having to be failed due to the use of "text speak" in the response to examination questions.

Countries now favouring the use of "baccalaureates" as a global standard for education are so concerned that they have issued clear guidance to language teachers, lectures, assessor and awarding bodies to mark down text use in any format and in doing so its hoped to drive up the communication skills of young people.

Answer 3

Looks like it already has !.. The question should have been 'How can texting affect teen literacy'.

Persistent use of text 'shortcuts' affects literacy - because people get used to using the text version of words in their everyday life. I have seen many instances where (obviously teenagers) have used 'text speak' in real-life situations. The number of instances in questions and answers on here is growing daily.

Text speak developed because of the way text messages are charged to the user. When mobile texting started, users were limited to 160 characters per text. Each text was charged individually. This meant the user had to abbreviate words so they could fit what they wanted to say into one message - or pay for multiple messages. Subsequent technology developments meant that the networks could extent that limit to 760 characters. That gave the user much more space in a single message. Having said that - even now - texts are still sent in 'blocks' of 160 characters. The phone just 'joins' them together !

Text-speak is fine - so long as it is confined only to mobile phone messages. Away from the phone, people should use 'standard' text at all times.

Answer 4

does text messaging effect writing outside of text messaging