Does New Media Corrupt Communication or Does It Help?

Through out break I have been noticed that many people have been very close with iPod touches, cell phones, iPad's and other electronics that they have gotten for Christmas, or they have already had. Before break started our class answered a few questions about language and what corrupts it. One question was "does new media corrupt communication or does it help shape communication and culture?" When I answered this question a few weeks ago before break I thought that it did corrupt communication. Reasons like students would type with text talk like 'u, i, ur, idk, etc' in an essay and other reasons also. But tonight I went to get my haircut and my hairdresser told me that her 5 year old daughter got an iPod touch for Christmas along with her other 5 year old son and her 8 year old son. While I was shocked that kids would be getting electronics like this at such a young age, she told me that the iPod touch is actually being beneficial for them. She told me that she downloaded some texting app for her kids, and she said that her daughter uses it to remember spelling words. She would type down the word and send it to her mom and then ask if the word was spelled right. I thought that was very creative and a very unusual way to learn how to spell because like I said before, most kids when they text, type the shortest amount of characters in a text message as possible, but this young child is using it to help her spell. So while I thought that new media like texting can corrupt communication, it can also be beneficial in the example of the little girl.