Friday: 20 November
This could be a little weird to read in a blog… but I was watching an episode of ‘Californication’ the other day - and I stumbled across this fantastic quote…
For those who don’t know the show - this extract is a quote from an author speaking on a radio about his new job as a ‘blog writer’. He says:
“People… they don’t write anymore - they blog. Instead of talking, they text, no punctuation, no grammar: LOL this and LMFAO that. You know, it just seems to me it’s just a bunch of stupid people pseudo-communicating with a bunch of other stupid people in a proto-language that resembles more what cavemen used to speak than the King’s English.”
Now I have to agree. There are some people out there who think that by smashing a few thoughts or ideas on a keyboard and posting it on the web - they are indeed opening the lines of communication in a significantly more profound and diverse way the oldies of the previous generations would ever have dreamed they would be able to do.
I guess this school of thought is somewhat true. Instead of the good old telegram, telex, letter, telephone call, or chit-chat over coffee or lunch - all of which (except the telephone) take at least a marginal amount of effort, thought or forward planning to get going… - Today - we can simply text, blog, chat, tweet and status update all day to our hearts content, and we don’t even really need to think about it. I guess it also effectively gets the message (whatever it may be) out there and across for the all of your mates to see!
But - in doing this, what are we actually doing for the English language, or indeed for our refined and defined (…some more than others) interpersonal communication skills?
Another question: How long has it been since you pulled out a blank piece of paper and wrote a letter to someone, using correct language, diction, grammar and spelling? No spell-check or “fragment consider revising”?
Now, I’m not judging anyone - nor am I saying that it really matters when the last time you partook in this archaic method of communication actually was… but for many, many, many years this was the ultimate method of communication.
Even when the Fax machine was born… you still needed something written on paper in order for the ’state-of-the-art’ facsimile technology to do its bit.
If the technological means of communication today, namely email, blogging and tweeting simply enhance our ability to “traditionally” interact and communicate… I say bring it on! - It opens up the doors and multiplies the contact points one thousand fold and allows all of us to refine our command and mastering of the English language!
However, if we are indeed destroying the traditional means of interaction and communication by sitting at a desk, on a train or in a car “updating” the world through LOL, BRB, LMFAO, ROFL, and whatever other acronyms there are out there, through blogs and quirky-funny one liners, never actually having to spell a word, or for that matter know how to use that little thing you need to use when making one of those little smiling faces, I ask you world… what is happening to the skills the ancients once mastered?
I guess more importantly I ask - do they in fact matter anymore?
Do we need to know how to write, to spell or to punctuate?
(NOTE: Any pedantic, high-school English teacher out there that notices any spelling, grammatical, punctuation or factual errors in this piece of literature - are to be reminded that this is in fact a blog… and is thus exempt from English language usage rules and regulations)
Semicolon, dash, close-parenthesis…
Nathan.
PS. If you ever get stuck understanding the new world lingo - check this out… it may help!
