Yesterday I realized that the "T9" or "Word" setting on my cell phone text messaging automatically recognizes and completes the word "Myspace." This astounded me -- that the word "Myspace" is used so often in text messaging that it was added to the T9/Word database, or however that worked.
A few months ago, a group of my friends got into a debate over lunch about the internet and the huge impact it's having on the evolution of the English language. How, not only is it impacting the way people communicate, but it's also drastically hastening the adoption of language. Someone had read an article, for example, that talked about how the word "McJob" was inducted into Websters Collegiate Dictionary about four times faster than a word would have been 100 years earlier. (Dictionary snobbery aside, please. Yeah, yeah, Websters isn't Oxford, blah blah. It's still a sign of the impact of the internet.)
We all see it in the common adoption of shortcuts in the language. Although some of us (myself included) find "u" "r" and especially "your" for "you're" to be lamentable, the fact is, they've become common enough now that we all know what they mean, even if we don't want to. And, after all, isn't that the way language works?
Certainly English isn't consistent throughout the United States, let alone consistent with the Brits and the Aussies. And it certainly isn't consistent with the language of, say, Shakespeare, which, as every high school student knows, is tough to struggle through because linguistic forms have changed so much!
So, while I may cry at the consistent misuse of "your" vs. "you're," "there" vs. "their" vs. "they're," and "u" and "r" shortcuts -- still, isn't that the way things evolve? Some British snobs overseas are probably lamenting the fact that, for us, "colour" is now "color," but the fact is, it's happened, it's common, and life is, after all, all about change and evolution.
Side note: I'm heading out tomorrow to vacation in beautiful Twin Lakes, Wisconsin with my family -- a week full of books, sun, swimming, Rummy 500 tournaments, and absolutely no way to connect to the internet. I know, it'll be an interesting experience for me, too. I hope you all have a wonderful week, and I hope you'll stop by again when I return!
