An interesting thing has happened in the last twenty years. Maybe it’s just me getting older and seeing a generation gap from the other side, but I’d say that the quality of sentences and grammar has dropped dramatically. Now, I make no ‘ivory towers’ claim here to be perfect — I’m sure some of you can point out the odd comma I’ve screwed up, a verb or tense I’ve used incorrectly or just a poorly constructed sentence or three. But there are some things I object to: and I blame mobile phones. Text speak. Or “txt spk” (it makes me shudder). Ok, on a mobile phone, you’ve got at least an excuse to say “how r u”. If you, like me, can’t figure out predictive T9 or whatever it’s called then you’re going to abbreviate the odd thing or two.
But when you’ve got a whole keyboard in front of you complete with buttons for letters, numbers AND punctuation, surely you should use them? Here’s a sure-fire way to stop any form of internet conversation with me:
“wot r u like lol lol lol”
Er, and the correct response is what? “ROFL?” “Rofflecopters?” “Cheers, bye?”. Laziness in communication creates misunderstandings. Misunderstandings rarely stand out as the great points in history where things got dramatically better all of a sudden.
Words. Sentences. Grammar. Punctuation. These things and more are things I look for when I meet someone new. I just know this is all going to sound wrong, but if we’re going to have a relationship, then we’re going to be communicating on a level well above “lol a/s/l ROFL!”. Somehow that isn’t going to cut it for humour, politics and general discussion about life, the universe and everything.
I think we should have a new national holiday: “Construct a complete sentence day”: everyone’s goal is to send a text message from their phone that consists of only complete sentences including all of the punctuation (especially the apostrophes). That day shall be tomorrow.
Oh, and I have a date at the weekend :-)
Now, no LOLs folks, but I may excuse the odd ROFL.
karalina said,
February 16, 2007 @ 1:55 am
Electronic communication has ruined the beauty of the written word…However, I do find myself using LOL in text messaging and I cringe when I do.
Have fun on your date this weekend!
tentickles said,
February 16, 2007 @ 6:22 pm
I’m kinda nervous, but looking forward to it :)
With you on the whole beauty of the written word. Perhaps it is because I read so much, seeing the laziness in electronic communications and the opportunities for misunderstandings makes me sob into my coffee way too often :)
dregina said,
February 16, 2007 @ 7:30 pm
When I come across letters written by my father and grandmother, I despair at my relative ignorance of grammar and literature. I blame TV as much as electronic communication. We just don’t read as much as we used to, and it makes for poor writing.
tentickles said,
February 16, 2007 @ 11:31 pm
I agree completely — and particularly in the last decade, I’ve found myself forsaking TV much more often for a good book. Perhaps the interesting thing is that the more books I read, the broader range of genres I wanted to read. It’s kinda addictive – and I always know a good one, the pages magically turn themselves and I find myself still sitting in bed at 3AM realising that I’m utterly screwed for getting up at 6 for work :-) Still, a short night’s sleep is a small price to pay for being transported to another place.