Is Technology Ruining the English Language?

Image: cozylittlebookjournal

With the emergence of mobile phones and, in particular, the rise in obsessive use of them by young people, came the concern by some that mobile phones and text language have caused a demise of the English language. It is fair to say that ‘text speak’ has crept into spoken English and perhaps affected a few teenagers, but perhaps it is more the change in rapidity of our communication that could be the cause of the problem.

Having to admit that I occasionally read the Daily Mail to make my next point is a shame, but The Mail Online is a classic case of quantity over quality. The speed in which they produce their articles, in order to keep up with social media, leads to an offensive amount of typing errors and language mistakes. I am sure that the middle-aged journalist is perfectly capable of grammatically correct English, but perhaps the young and impressionable reader may not be.

Evolution of language is important, the words we use have to fit with the way we live our lives. The rapidity of communication, and the increase in unnecessary communication, render eloquent phrasing unnecessary. There’s no need for a grammatically correct way of messaging, ‘train delayed –will be 10 mins late’ because its purpose is the information it provides, not the way in which it is provided. It is a fascinating novelty of our generation that we even feel the necessity of sending such a message, and we regularly do, presumably our grandparents would have just waited patiently for our parents at the station, working out for themselves that the train was delayed.  

It can be said that the word, ‘ruining’ may be a little presumptuous, ‘evolving’ may be more appropriate. The invention of the internet has lead to a whole new terminology such as, ‘blog’, ‘viral or, ‘social media’ which are all recently acquired vocabulary. Why do we feel differently about ‘lol’ and ‘l8r’? It is said that Shakespeare’s audiences were new to one in ten of his words, if he was allowed to creatively alter the English language, aren’t the teenagers of today?

Yet the fact remains that the internet has provided the small guy with a voice. If a hashtag is created on Twitter, there’s nothing the nostalgic English speakers can do about it. Although, the Italians feel much stronger on the topic, they can arrest shop owners with misspelt signs for ‘public abuse of the language’. We, on the other hand, have a good old moan. Well, I do anyway.