Letter to the editor - Twtr? It's majorly bad!

In this article, Laura Clark inaccurately explains the effects of texting towards one’s language abilities. The author, Laura Clark, blames technology for “eroding hard-learned skills” in areas such as spelling and grammar. She believes that text speak “erodes pupils language skills”, which I disagree with. Technology is a great learning tool for students to use as it improves the student’s language due to dictionaries, auto-correct, and the whole internet, which are available to a student in just a couple of seconds or are a few clicks away. Laura Clark goes on to say that many youngsters are not “reading in the same way”, and spend their time on social media, making her wonder how much new vocabulary youngsters are exposed to. I fully disagree that social media hinders kids of being exposed to new vocabulary. With social media, kids are able to take in more information and vocabulary when compared to reading a book as there is a large variety of posts and comments, which only betters ones language ability. Schools should not see technology and Social Media as a hindrance to the language skills of an individual, but as a helpful and effective tool when trying to expand a student’s vocabulary as well as their grammatical skill. Coming back to my initial statement, text speak does not “erode pupils language skills”, and much rather expands pupils language skills. Texting is an expansion of an individuals language skills, and should not be seen as a damaging influence on one’s language Ability. Learning the different vocabulary in text speak, such as gr8, m8 and innit, should be seen as learning a different dialect or even a new language when compared to the language used in school. I believe that saying text speak is bad, is like saying that being bilingual and knowing a different language is bad. Being bilingual has been proven to have a positive effect on a person’s cognitive skills, thus improve your language skills. Due to this, I believe that this article inaccurately represents the effects of texting and technology on a person’s language abilities as it does not erode language skills which were previously acquired. 

Eminem Cultural Memoir

When I started out Rapping I had a really tough time. In a community dominated by Blacks, gaining authenticity and being recognised by other rappers as well as by my audience was a real challenge. In this community, artists have to stand by what you represents and who you are. Self expression and individuality is key to be recognised and have an impact on the community and my audience. I was far from all of this, and even today, my authenticity is still often questioned. When I started out rapping, over 75% of my work was sold to white people. Of course they questioned my place in the predominantly African American community, where most rappers sell all of their works to other African American people. 

Even though at the start I was often not accepted, this soon changed as the hip-hop community and other artists realised that I was not the typical white rapper. My lyrics was different, my stories were different. I was brought up in a low class, poverty stricken white household with only my mother, who used to be a welfare recipient. I never knew my Father. Due to the hardship and violence that i had to go through when I was smaller, I was acknowledged more by the hip-hop community. They seemed to understand what I went through. I used to use my songs to express my socio-economic status to my audience. Even though my hardship, which I faced in the early years in my life, brought me closer to being accepted by the community and having an impact, I was still not fully integrated into the community. 

This however changed when I teamed up with Dr. Dre, who himself is a established and recognised rapper in the community. By having him by my side, on the same team, I finally made an impact on the hip-hop community. People started to listen and liked what I had to say. Dr. Dre had a big impact on my life. Due to him already being a prime figure in the field, I had it easier. With now people actually wanting to listen to what I had to rap about, they liked my music more. They understood my hardship, they acknowledged me as one of them. Once i was fully accepted into this community, my impact on both the community and audience grew larger daily. In incorporated more violence into my songs, as this seemed to be the topic most people in the community wanted to hear about the most. Due to the increased attention towards me from the community, the press and media also started to want to have interviews with me, which again boosted my impact on the community as most of them were broadcasted on TV or Radio, which many people have access to. I believe that marketing myself in the correct way had the biggest impact as I became more well known and thus have had a greater impact on the Hip-Hop community, as well as on my audience.