Today, the younger generation stands accused by many of butchering or destroying the English language when text messaging on our cell phones or chatting on AIM. People see it as a threat to social progress. I disagree! We use short-hand and text-lingo because it serves more efficiently for our purpose…to relay messages at a quick pace. This doesn’t mean that we don’t know how to correctly express ourselves in society exhibiting fluent use of the English language. Text lingo is just an extension of how we express ourselves. It is by no means a substitute nor is it a hindrance, blocking advancement in knowledge of proper English. This is why we have English in schools, and papers to write, constantly, from elementary all the way up through college level--this has not changed since the time before computer lingo and short-hand existed. So, we have not lost the ability to talk and express ourselves, we have merely developed fresh, new, innovative ways to do so.
In the “Internet Linguistics” article by Crystal, I found interesting and totally agreed with the insight into blogging. It is indeed a very creative medium, and it has revived the art of diary writing, which was thought to be dying out as a literary domain a few years ago. I also liked how Crystal described blogging from a linguistic point of view as displaying the written language in its most “naked” form. That is very true, because you don’t have interference from editors, proofreaders, or anyone else who might try to standardize it and turn it into something watered down and bland. It’s exciting to be able to freely express yourself, with all of the emotion you choose to include, censor free. I think it’s a motivation for child and adult literacy. I have just recently found inspiration to begin my own personal blogging, because I desire to feel that same excitement in expressing my thoughts about different things, and also the satisfaction of looking back on what I’ve written and reflecting.
Here's a cool article talking about blogging and how it's a quicker way of getting news, but how some people have problems with it in certain circumstances: http://beltwayblogroll.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/06/blogging_is_a_w.php
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
yeah, blogging is definately a great way to keep your thoughts together. on the subject of internet lingo, i really feel like there's a time and a place for everything. if kids are using webspeak for writing papers in school, that's definately not appropriate. however, online and out of the academic sphere, no problem.
So you see the text and online wording that people use as a kind of new shorthand, then? That's pretty cool. I'm not a fan of the online shorthand myself, but I guess as long as people have a firm grasp of the English language before they begin to use these abbreviations, it should be cool.
Post a Comment