TV and radio.... (college, places, kids)

[missymomof3]

Is TV and radio affecting our cultures? I read somewhere that people on TV speak in the Midwestern way and that that can affect the way you talk. I wish I could remember where I saw that. Is that true? What about rap/hip-hop? Does that change the way kids talk? How about the way people text/IM?

[j33]

I don't think TV affects the way most people speak at all. Studies have actually shown that people are most influenced by their local speech community and/or family, not by the media when it comes to how they speak. Do I think that people watch too much TV? Most definitely. But I don't think that it is changing our speech patterns.

However, I do think that email and texting (and messageboards) effect how people write. I'm completely fine with casual writing (emails, txt, etc) but I also tutor writing on the side and I've seen that some people do not seem to know the difference between formal and casual writing, and while suspect grammar, spelling, and acronyms are fine in places like this (and I've been known to employ all three, sometimes in the same post), that doesn't mean it has a place in one's college essay.

[missymomof3]

Thank you! I feel the same way.

[Chava61]

I don't think TV directly effects how one speaks but it definitely spreads the knowledge of all kinds of new idioms and expressions.