No, the rot started before texting. College writing programs are hotbeds of political correctness and leftist sentimentality. They actively teach bad writing in the name of having an “authentic voice”, and spend more time on writing autobiographical anecdotes and opinion pieces (the latter graded mostly on how politically correct they opinions expressed are, and how “authentic” the “voice” is, rather than on things valued by the oppressive whitemale heteronormative society like grammar, pronunciation or sound rhetoric) than on writing scholarly essays with proper formal style and textual apparatus.
Colleges and universities largely became the seminaries of the new cultural "religion" and its ethos.[57] Revised standard studies and new courses, such as gay studies, became part of the new orthodoxy, with a later neglect of core subjects.[58] . Relative few teaching posts became staffed by conservatives.[59][60][61] While early attempts by students to gain positions of administrative power in their institutions had only limited success, its graduates would soon fill positions of power in informational, educational, and governmental agencies, and as by a Fabian strategy achieve its victories.
In a Harvard Crimson article, noted conservative Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield contended that "Grade inflation got started … when professors raised the grades of students protesting the war in Vietnam..." "At that time, too, white professors, imbibing the spirit of the new policies of affirmative action, stopped giving low grades to black students, and to justify or conceal this, also stopped giving low grades to white students." The problem was essentially seen as the predominance of the notion of self-esteem, "in which the purpose of education is to make students feel capable and 'empowered,' and professors should hesitate to pass judgment on what students have learned." Such assertions resulted in no small controversy. [18 ]
Harvard alumnus and author Ross Douthat attributed this problem partly to socioeconomic differences, and noted that "Harvard students are creatively lazy, gifted at working smarter rather than harder", being brilliant largely in their tactics "to achieve a maximal GPA in return for minimal effort." Few people who have taught at Harvard agree with Douthat's notions.