Dear John Humphrys,

I am writing a response to your article where you argue that texting is apparently “wrecking our language”. I think you are overreacting. You argue that texters are “vandals” and are doing to the English language what Genghis Khan did to his neighbours 800 years ago. You claim that texters are “pillaging our punctuation, salvaging our sentences and raping our vocabulary”, taking the English language and stripping its richness and complexity and turning it into an illiterate and broken form of communication. I personally agree that texting could affect some individuals with their punctuation, but I disagree with the statement where you claim that abbreviations develop mental laziness for every individual. Many people find it easy to abbreviate languages for one minute and then the next minute speak or write in a correct context when obliged to do so.

Mr Humphrys, you believe searching for a word in the dictionary is ‘a small voyage of discovery”. I strongly disagree; in my own experience I believe that using the internet allows me and others to save time. Searching for a word on the internet has benefited me many times and has helped me not to be forgetful of what I wanted to write. Therefore I think it reduces time and stops the hassle of going to a dictionary. From my own experience, I would say that searching for a word on the internet gives you a clearer definition of it due to the fact there are multiple up to date definitions. Rather than the one way or old fashioned definition-based dictionary, which can limit some people’s understanding of the subtleties of a word. Online dictionaries can give you an instant history of a word and how it’s changed, and hyperlinks can make fascinating connections between different works of literature. Online dictionaries are much more reliable at documenting slang and colloquial language.

Mr Humphrys, you claim that we do not use hyphens anymore due to the OED saying that words without hyphens are not spelt correctly. You also suggest the claim that people not having the time to press the hyphen key is “daft”. I have to say I politely disagree with your statement as many people do not use this symbol because they are still able to recognise the word without the use of this symbol. It makes no difference in the word with or without the hyphen as the meaning is self evident (or should i say self-evident).

Another outrageous statement you make is when you say texting is ‘pillaging our punctuation’ and ‘savaging our sentences and raping our vocabulary’, implying that texting is completely ruining the English language and turning it into an illiterate, primitive and basic form of communication. Mr Humphrys, once again you are over-dramatizing and making a huge deal out of nothing; language should be able to change or adapt to different times and environments. For example, Mr John Humphrys, when you are speaking to your friends or colleagues do you honestly use the correct term of written English? Texting is a real quick instant type of communication like chatting. So why should you question when ‘texters’ abbreviate words which still get the message across, just in a much simpler context which is shorter to read (unlike your article).

 To sum up, your views and your article are out of touch and out of date. You set yourself up as someone who has authority to dictate how the rest of us should think, speak and communicate. language should be allowed to adapt in the different types of surroundins and people like you should not be allowed to intervene.