Over the past few decades email and text messaging have changed the way people communicate now. While I agree that these new methods have many benefits, I also believe that they are threatening the formal system of written language in some cases. The main problem is that many people are beginning to forget how to write by hand, and some younger individuals have never properly learned this skill at all, only knowing how to write in their phones or computers.
Before email and mobile phones, written communication was much slower. People wrote letters by hand or used typewriters, which required time, patience and careful thinking. Writing was an important skill to express feelings and ideas, and written language was required and respected.
There is no doubt that emails and messages bring many advantages to people, making life easier. They allow instant communication across any distance, which is essential for international work and education. It is free, except for mobile service fees, and available to anyone. These all has made communication more accessible and quicker, reducing people’s dependence on pen and paper.
However, this convenience comes at a cost. As people type more and write less by hand, they begin to forget the motor skills, which is crucial for handwriting. Many people in modern world admit that when they need to write something by hand they can forget how to write certain letters. Also, people often forget how to use punctuation, and use a lot of abbreviations, lacking the skill to be formal in writing essays or documents. Another issue is that typing on phone often includes autocorrection, so people are forgetting how to write and even spell difficult words themselves.
In conclusion, I agree that email and text messaging are threatening the status of written language. While they are excellent for quick communication, they also lead to poor writing quality. To protect this quality of written language it is important to continue teaching how to write by hand and valuing this skill.