Love it/Hate it: Text Messaging

Love It

“It’s really convenient when you’re somewhere you can’t talk on the phone, like in class or at a loud party. It’s AIM for anywhere, and I’m a nerd, so I like that. Basically, it’s just fun, and anyway I have free texting.”

-Stefanie Wilson ’08

Hate It

“Text messaging will be the downfall of Western civilization. It’s 20 times worse than AIM. Phones are for SPEAKING, not writing. The only letters you should be typing are if they are in phone numbers, as in 1-800-MATTRESS... It also gives people an excuse to type and speak even worse than they did before. It’s justification for poor grammar and misspelled words. Pretty soon it spills over into everyday speech, and not only do you want to slam your head in a drawer because of what a person is saying, but because of the way they’re saying it too. By the end of this text message movement, we’re all going to be hooting and yelling like monkeys and banging the phones in much the same way, except we’ll have good hair and a pair of Asics. That’s best case scenario.... Pretty soon the English language will be no more than a random series of letters. Yeah, so t-9 words...screw you!

-Evan Hanlon ’08