Spellign The End Of Dictionaries

You know what is disappearing from ill defined, confusing world? It's the printed dictionary. You don't see them in stores or on tables in people's homes as much anymore. I think they may eventually be an extinct printed paper form of information, like encyclopedias are today. Try to buy a set of encyclopedias and your will be told that you are both crazy and that they all are on line now. This higher tech world is erasing the printed word and making it an electronic one. I shudder at the thought of those E book devices, because if I can't hold a book in my hand it isn't interesting enough for me to read.

I do realize this dictionary concept is a generational one. Having grown up with and depended on paper dictionaries, I have an emotional attachment to them that Jane doesn't, given that she has always had the electronic kind to use...and that spell check "thing". Spell check is like a laxative. It is unpleasant to take but very useful in that it eliminates our own brain check of our own errors or questions. I am not sure, but I think spell check is an example of a technology that is too easy for us. It puts the brain on default, making it fat and lazy.

If an alien species wanted to destroy humans one way would be to make them so dependent on technology that they forget how to think and do things on their own. Taking away our dictionaries is a beginning to that process. But alas! I can still find dictionaries in stores. They are there mostly because not all schools issue computers to kids, and as a result the child has to bring a paper dictionary to school. Who knows when the paper dictionary will disappear, but I think its disappearance will be in correlation with school demands for little Johnny having one at his desk.

Anyway, dictionaries are also changing their form. They are now very liberal about what is in and out. For example, profanity is now in. When I was a kid we could not find vulgarity in a dictionary, but today it is all over the pages. Might this be because this age is a far more vulgar one than previous editions. Do we really need the F word in little Johnny's dictionary? Maybe because dictionaries should include every term used frequently and acceptably. It's hard to believe that society now views the F word as acceptable by society. But it is. Maybe we need both a G and an R rated version of dictionaries. That would be much easier to print than to put on line electronically (yet another advantage of the printed dictionary).

For it to survive, a language is and must be a changing organism, and I guess the form for discovering words should be too. But I prefer the paper version of dictionaries. A paper dictionary requires we exercise our minds when trying to find a word, it is less likely to change its composition "too fast", and it feels good in the hand. If you don't believe me you can.... "look it up"