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Through the ages languages have come and gone and the ones that stayed have continued to evolve. Our English speaking society has become a society in a state of flux, encouraging the use of slang and short forms through the internet, media and our culture. The last 20 years has seen a drastic increase in the use of slang and jargon. More recently with the wide spread use of the internet as a means of communication there has been an even further erosion of the English language. Today’s environment is helping to spread the corner cutting, the increased use of abbreviations, and the relentless attack at the foundations of our English speaking culture. This can be seen in the writing style of people today, the decrease in the number of active people in North America and even extends into our children’s speech. Society is under attack from an attacker that moves with a click of the mouse from user to user. The next victim being infected by this as they attempt to respond with another click and so it spreads from one user to another. No one is safe; all who are “plugged in” will be infected!
The increased use of the internet as the backbone for communication between users has created its own set of problems. With today's high paced work environment, where some people receive hundreds of emails a day and where there isn’t always time to respond with a properly written out letter, language is slipping. People throw good writing out the window in order to get their ideas heard. This common misconception that it’s quantity over quality, people firing emails without consideration to the person on the other end who has to read this garbled page of ideas. It is this that plays the most significance in language’s erosion.
In online chat forums it is speed that plays the biggest role in the creation of new terms. Instead of writing “be right back” people write “BRB” or instead of saying “I laughed” they say “LOL” which means “laughing out loud”. These abbreviations seem harmless at first but consider for a moment the age group that is most exposed to this. It is our younger generation that adapt to computers and new concepts faster then their parent’s generation. Combine ease of website creation with this and you have a deadly combination for language erosion. Websites can be whipped up over night. There are no standards like there are in publishing companies. This means that a young son or daughter can be reading information posted on the web researching a topic for school project that was written by someone with poor writing skills. They are frequently reading material that is reinforcing bad grammar and writing skills.
The media has always been quick to pick up on social changes like the internet or cultural influences. For this reason alone the media is not one to set a good example for grammar or use of proper English words. With the use of “NITE” on a chart showing the next 24 hours prediction of the weather because “NIGHT” wouldn’t fit in the space is one of many examples. Often in addition the scripts read by news ankers have been quickly constructed from the latest events. With the average North American home consisting of at least one television. This provides ample opportunity for the media to influence how our language evolves.
In the printed media form language quality varies. Often you can find different levels of writing by looking at different newspapers. Even papers that rise to the challenge and attempt to conform to “older” standards are still slipping. You might ask, why? They need to change slowly, they aren’t changing as fast as the other papers but if they didn’t change at all they would find themselves without readers. They easily pick up on terms like “Y2K” that until the clock struck twelve midnight December 31, 1999 was linked to the largest computer glitch.
In magazines language is solely related to the target market. If magazine writers are aiming at the youth market the language tends to reflect the terms that the younger generation would be most familiar with. With ads that are mostly pictures and a poorly constructed sentence at the bottom or playing off some societal catch phrase of the month, using terms such as “hella fun” meaning “lots of fun”. Our magazines are not helping to extend good writing skills. In our youths “prime” learning period they are often exposed to the largest combination of slang and improper sentence structure.
The bar continues to drop when it comes to our culture. Today’s youth play down their intelligence in favor of being more socially acceptable. They use “pop-culture” slang and innuendoes to communicate in a level far below their intelligence. Youths often start a sentence with “yo man” and end it with “you know what I mean?” and have said nothing between those slang phrases. The influence comes from ethnic backgrounds linked with gang related activities. The few that attempt to communicate with their peers on a higher level are often looked down upon because they can clearly articulate their thoughts and emotions. In today’s social atmosphere it is not “cool” to be smart, so people hide behind a facade often resembling that of someone they’ve seen on television.
With the pressures of a youthful society drifting away from well spoken generations of the past, it seems that no language standards are holding. The English language has always been changing; since it was first created and it will continue to evolve. Does this even matter? The answer is yes! With slang on the rise, advertisers “dumbing” down their ads and the internet playing an ever larger role in our lives we are being changed by a force we have no control over. It seems that for the ever growing quest for money our society is being encouraged to go somewhere that is harmful. Are you in control?
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