Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Communication, Internet, LOL, OMG, Society, Teenagers, Teens, WTF
I would like to take a moment to assess the damage that is currently being done to the english language (primarily) by teenagers across the globe and by the media when targeting that audience.
Unless you live in a cave, one with no internet access, you have surely witnessed this phenomenon. People with Myspace profiles (generally in their teens) using countless acronyms (such as WTF, OMG, LOL, LMAO) for things that could be far more intelligibly expressed given the garden variety of words in any given dictionary. For example, one could say: “What was up with that?” in lieu of ‘WTF;’ one could say: “Oh my god, that’s unbelievable” rather than ‘OMG;’ one could say: “Haha, how hilarious was/is that?” or “That’s hilarious” instead of ‘LOL’ or ‘LMAO.’
Whichever route one chooses to take, so long as they are not abbreviating every other word and/or creating their own acronyms that are unintelligible to the rest of us, I, for one, will respect that person a great deal more.
Now, on to another aspect of the situation, you, the reader, may be asking yourself: “So? What’s the big deal?” The big deal is that the current operation of text-based communication amongst people in my age group and below (0-24) are communicating in a manner that promotes laziness, ignorance, and a lack of thought.
What strikes me as more frightening than the problem at hand is that because the media recognizes this trend and consequently advertises accordingly, using a plethora of acronyms, those not yet using a written means of communication are being programmed to believe this way to be an acceptable means by which to communicate.
Take the time to write correctly. The payoff outweighs the miniscule span of time saved via abbreviation.
JSR
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