A Silver Lining to Email and Texting?

As someone who feels the excitement of new communication methods, I have a hard time believing that texting and email are completely ruining our writing skills. Yet as a high school English teacher I also have a hard time believing that texting and email are the best thing for our writing abilities. Recently reading Christina McCarroll's article in The Christian Science MonitorI felt a peace that yes, email and texting as changing our abilities to write, and not necessarily for the worse.

McCarroll's article is centred on the institution of the S.A.T. and how new communications such as texting and email are influencing performances. Well performance is not really the focus of the article, in that no data is offered whether scores are up or down. Instead, (and this may be telling of why I found the article most pleasing) a variety of stakeholders' theories are presented to explain their respective feelings for and against claims that texting and email are harming communications abilities.

And while there certainly is no declarative conclusion, McCarroll's sources and tone suggest that different writing practices are just that, different. Not necessarily better or worse, just different. And while some interested parties are gung-ho to judge this better or worse verdict, I think through sheer popularity, I have to agree with the author's statement that "there's a genuine writing renaissance under way". With emailing, texting, and blogging, I now write more than I ever have before in my life, including during high school and my undergrad degrees. Am I a better writer now? Arguably yes, simply because of my daily practice. I recall some ancient saying about practice, "practice makes perfcet" (and spellcheck doesn't hurt either).