I would like to congratulate social media for taking us back to the years of telegraphy!

You know, it’s difficult to convince people, especially parents, that our generation is not the ‘lost and directionless’ generation they think it is, that we know exactly what we want. I mean, in their eyes, we are a bunch of ungrateful spoiled brats who have never worked for a thing in their life… blah, blah and more negative BLAH!

As much as I try to disagree with these beliefs, sometimes I’m left with no choice but to look at my generation and say, “Ai, but… maybe they are right.” I know it’s a terrible thing to do, to side with ‘old stuck-up parents’ who won’t accept that things never stay the same; that change is the only constant. I mean our parents are teaming up against us, why should I then be a sell-out and agree with them? But sometimes I really can’t help it but admit that the world is going to the dogs and no one is to be blamed but us – the youth.

We are a very lucky generation of tweets, statuses and likes! In future, when they think of us, social media will be the first thing that comes to mind! And there’s a bloody good reason why it’s called “technological advancements” – it is meant to help us advance – meaning move forward… but it seems we’ve gone back to the years of telegraphy.

What do I mean?

Work that has been done to advance people’s literacy skills has been erased by social media. What we have right now is informal, meaningless and useless words such as lmaorotf, lol and so on. (Like really, are we that lazy?)

Now, I know, to say they are meaningless is a bit flawed coz lol simply means you are ‘laughing out loud’, right? See, it ain’t that hard to type it in full! Some people are so used to short-hand writing that they’ve forgotten how to spell words.

I’m sure Shakespeare and friends would weep gallons of tears if they could read some of the things we put as status messages riddled with misspellings and IncOnsiSteNT uSaGe of CapItaL LeTters? It’s really, really bad, I tell you. I mean one day we’ll be parents and will be tasked with the duty of helping our children with spelling homework. How can we do that if we still write like this? My heart breaks a thousand times for the future of our kids.

But I guess change is the only constant. I have to accept that this is how things are now; this just another form of human evolution. Maybe one day we will have books written in this new universal language.

Anyways, I was just saying. Like Kermit the Frog – maybe it’s none of my business.

ZZ xxx

Dish it: what do you think of this? Do you think the language is going extinct?

I’m on Facebook too.