Technology
has certainly impacted communication capabilities over the centuries. The invention of printing presses, telephone,
radio, television, and computers has certainly altered how information is
gathered, stored, and shared. The
internet would be the most recent – but not the last – significant invention to
influence the exchange of ideas and information. How is today’s technology impacting language,
from word creation and usage to how we hear or understand what is being said?
It
seems that we should conclude the following, that as a result of digital
communications, we now can:
·
Transmit
info anywhere across the globe in a matter of seconds
·
Use
unlimited space to convey a message – no longer limited by time (i.e. TV
broadcast) or physical space (paper).
·
Allow
anyone to take center stage without needing to get past a gatekeeper or
authoritative media outlet
·
Use
citizen journalists and self-published authors to counter the established media
and publishers
It
also seems there are many pitfalls, including these:
·
There’s
a digital divide – the majority of global citizens still don’t log onto the
internet
·
No
record is safe from hacking and manipulation
·
Fake
news stories can be passed off as legitimate
·
With
everyone crowdsourcing news and information, the centralization or
authoritative sourcing of materials is degraded
We’re
missing an editor for the Internet. No
one is there to double-check spelling, facts, grammar, punctuation, syntax,
capitalization, or word usage. Blogs,
websites, emails, and social media postings are ruining the English language
with its made-up words, misuse of words, short-handing of everything, and its
poor substitution of symbols for words, Netspeak (LMAO), and the lack of
complete sentences. Net communication is
brief, fragmented, and often so poorly structured that recipients could read a
communication and think that the sender’s intention is actually the opposite of what
was stated.
The
Twitterization of language and communication is awful. Our communications lack depth and
completeness. Or worse, we can’t
summarize properly and lazily hand over a link to something rather than say
what it’s about. We just endlessly click,
click, click – but we don’t always seem to say anything substantively.
We
treat communications as something we do to fill in an idle moment – waiting on
line, going to the bathroom, sitting on a bus or train, during a commercial
break, or while multi-tasking. People
used to give thought to what they’ll write.
They’d pause to edit it and reflect.
We now press send before we double-check to make sure we didn’t mistype
any words.
Language
is under attack. It happens in waves,
overtime. For instance, when immigrants
come in clusters, English gets abused.
It happens when major events or technologies come about and new words
and terms are needed to keep up. It
happens within regions and groups.
Ebonics, Spanglish, and now Netspeak are the more recent causations for
the bastardization of our language. Then
you have the PC police looking to sanitize words beyond recognition. As you can see, there’s an ongoing assault on
our language that is taking a toll on how we communicate with each other.
But
the biggest problem may come from our schools.
Our education system fails to produce graduates who can write well,
speak effectively, and master all aspects of the English Language. With fewer people left to correct those not
in the know, combined with those who should know better but fall into the
fashion of the day, we leave our language vulnerable to misuse, abuse,
distortion, and confusion.
On
the other hand, language is not static nor permanent. It reflects our society and bends to reflect
who we are. Sure, at any given time
there are rules and standards that we need to adhere to or we will have illiteracy
all around us, but we will need to be more tolerant of gyrations in the world
of language. For all we know, all of
this worry over English could be moot.
Based on birth and immigration patterns, we could be a Spanish-speaking
nation by the end of the century. Or, if
China continues to grow, we’ll all be speaking Mandarin.
DON'T MISS THESE POSTS
Authors
United Petitioning Justice Dept Over Amazon: Will You Join Them?
Will
Twitter be here to help authors in 2016?
This
Social Media Legal Handbook Helps Authors Navigate Laws
Free
newswires can help promote books and author brands
What Should Be Book Publishing’s Slogan?
19 Digital Tools To Assist Authors
What to do when book marketing fails you
Book Marketing Advice You Fin On A T-Shirt
Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog
are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter
@theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more
important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.