A lot of comments has been made about the dangers of texting, as shown by the statistics from the National Security Council that 28% of accidents are caused by drivers texting, so that it does not rehash these old arguments. Instead, let The Geezer Geek take a look at the catastrophic effect that texting has had on our culture (and I use that term with some reservations).
"hw r u?"
"whassup?"
"roflmao"
"me 2"
"ilu" (and you can imagine the wasted bandwidth that this particular one is going to take on this "day Hallmark" of 14 February?)
"r u up 2 2nite wht?"
Now, I realize that spelling and grammar are not more of the requirements of any American public school, especially here in Texas where only ' teaching to the test TAKS ' anyway, but this is the end of thin wedge of civilization. The English language is undoubtedly the most powerful on Earth. Based on the confluence of several European languages and influences accompanied by decisions of William Caxton spelling bizarre, we have a multitude of nouns, verbs and adjectives for every occasion, but use them? We can use the language of Shakespeare, the vocabulary of Churchill or creativity to Mark Twain? No we do not, not anymore.
It seems that they have lost what little capacity actually write and speak correctly we have ever had, and now we are reduced to supposedly witty acronyms and abbreviations that are, all of a sudden, think of it as "modern talking". Well, let's not forget that SNAFU, FUBAR and SWALK can be traced back some years 70 or more, so we are pretty much the first generation to come with this way of communication and to address the language ... but we are the first such abuse so completely.
Bloggers are essentially frustrated authors with a genuine affection for the English language, and so my opinions on this may seem extreme, but someone has to draw a line in the sand when it comes to language. Ranted a few weeks ago on ' social networking ' and its connotation of antisocial networking and texting is simply an extension of this trend. It is clear that people would much rather someone text today to speak with them on the phone, and this is losing the essential nature of human communication. Simplistically, there are three levels of interpersonal communication: write to someone, talking with them on the phone or talking to them face-to-face. A study by yourself by UCLA Professor Albert Mehrabian, indicates that up to 93% of communication effectiveness is determined by nonverbal signals. While this study is often misinterepreted, we can only obtain a complete understanding of what someone means if we're actually in the same place as them, trying them in the eye when speaking. The phone gives us at least hue and verbal feedback, but texting does nothing but cause confusion.
The early days of e-mail has done lots of damage personal and business relationships as people tried to be humorous in their email, but they were completely misunderstood. Sarcasm only works if the recipient can see the twinkle in your eye or at least feel the cancer in your voice when you comment. Over time, emails have become more ubiquitous in their content as at least people tend to use full sentences and reasonably correct English, and so some of the initial ' sting ' was taken. However, when you arrive at a text that says "Whr r u?" is open to many misunderstandings, almost no one knows where to start? "Where are you (idiot)?" "Where are you (my love, I miss you)?" "Where are you (the House is burning down)?" "Where are you (I'm waiting here with the customer and he is mad because you are late)?" and a myriad of other uses, all equally valid, depending on the recipient's State of mind at the time. There seems to be a competition as to who can produce the shorter text with most of the options of misinterpretation.
Let's conclude this rant taking a final quick knock on Twitter. (Only, of course, be dedicating a blog all future for this particular wicked) Now, with the creation of a ' tweet ' wonderful, waste-to-time, one can not only single hole and offend a person you texted me earlier, but you can bore and offend many people at the same time. You can inform the thousands of people that have "goin 2 mall will b bck bi 7", and as long as you limit yourself to 140 characters, you can bore and offend the entire world! How can you not limiting yourself to 140 characters when "the 8 BFAST @ 9," will be understood by all recipients? Of course, these same recipients undereducated will be lost if you quote "... we are few, we happy few, we band of brothers". We have earned a tweet, but we have lost our soul culture.
Now, I realize that the boat ' texting ' has left the dock and no amount of complaining curmudgeonly or moans Geezer Geek will bring back, but we can at least there are some simple rules?
NO acronymsNO errorsNO sarcasm spelling (hmmm ...This is going to be tough for me)Probably not ... ah well, I give up ... "c u l8r bfn,"
Glyn Meek, with 40 years experience in the technology sector, has earned his curmudgeonly perspective.
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