It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.
I actually read a lot of blogs. I try and check my friends page on LJ almost everyday and I subscribe to the blogs of most of my friends here on Myspace. I find it amusing to see what people are doing or thinking. Often, it will allow me to hear about stuff that we might not discuss in real life, or then again, allow us to elaborate on a certain post. Blogging has become a broad spectrum way of communicating, gone are the days of having to re-tell the same amusing little anecdote over and over again. Blog it and technically, everyone of your closest friends should know. Simple.
I know I am not the best typist, I typo at a regular rate and I am okay with that. My grammar is poor in most cases, but we can easily mark that up at me being born, raised and educated in French. Not that my grammar in French is really flawless either mind you.
Yet a recent trend has got me down unfortunately and this has been reoccurring at a higher rate as of late. The trend in question has been dubbed webonics. Some see it as a natural progression of language, holding the same logical pattern as evolution. Growing for our English ancestral roots in Britain, MIDNIGHT evolved into MIDNITE, HUMOUR evolved into HUMOR. Language is in constant flow and is recreated at a constant rate. New technological demands and new scientific advances make the need for newer words necessary. For example, look in a dictionary fifteen years ago and doubtfully you will find mention of a terabyte. (Right now even my spell check is rejecting the word.)
Another growing trend is the use of acronyms o convey a message, BRB, WTF, OMG, STFU and LOL have become so used in common language that to not use them IS a waste of time. Expect them to join and clutter a new edition dictionary near you coming soon.
So after accepting the need of certain language to be adapted to newer trends why are we dumbing ourselves down? Some language analysts will blame it on laziness pure and simple. “Hw r u?” is a lot faster to type than “How are you?” for example. Other commonplace webonic abbreviations are: lyk (like), wud (would), ur (your, you’re) and cuz (because).
But the one that sickens me the most is how a common typo has made it’s way into the blogosphere (another new word). I give you: “TEH“. The typo has been used so often that our eyes are almost used to seeing it. It just plain happens. In the day and age of typing rapidly while chatting online, we all get a little bit more fluent in typonese (more fun new words!), and we just say nothing. What bothers me about the word is that people have started using it intentionally because it makes hem look cool. Intentional typos do not make you look cool in any shape way or form. A typo is a mistake, to do so intentionally is a sign of idiocy.
It is understandable and logical that language should evolve, letting it deteriorate on the other hand, totally fubar.