Ideas worth spreading

Txtng is killing language. JK!!!

3,351,949 views | John McWhorter • TED2013

Does texting mean the death of good writing skills? John McWhorter posits that there’s much more to texting -- linguistically, culturally -- than it seems, and it’s all good news.

Does texting mean the death of good writing skills? John McWhorter posits that there’s much more to texting -- linguistically, culturally -- than it seems, and it’s all good news.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

John McWhorter

See speaker profile

Linguist John McWhorter thinks about language in relation to race, politics and our shared cultural history.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.