Using Language Badly

I can't report on other languages, but I am fairly sure the quality of English language is in decline. I blame it on the electronic devices that make informal language standard and formal language almost extinct. It's quite an irony. One would think the improved communication avenues and the speed at which they work would make for better language. It does not. We have become "language sloppy".

I saw an article the other day about the most used web site of all, Face book. The writer listed ten sloppy, erroneous and overused expressions that clutter Face book pages. Here they are. 1. At the end of the day 2. Fairly unique 3. I personally 4. At this moment in time 5. With all due respect 6. Absolutely 7. It's a nightmare 8. Shouldn't of 9.24-7 10. It's not rocket science

I would be shocked if you didn't agree you hear those way too much. And we both could make a long list of our own least favorite sloppy, incorrect or overused terms or phrases. With so many sources for discussion there is much bad usage in speech and print. Need an example, just look at blogging.

All the anonymous blogging has dumbed down discussions as well as spewed erroneous information. It might be a new law that given the proliferation of media sources, that bad language kills good language. Fact is, when we use the technology we try to get the message across as quickly as possible, and damn the usage, grammar and spelling as we do it. "Multitasking" (I hate that word) is fatal to meaningful and accurate communication.

The Internet is the source of much of the bad language usage and the promotion of it. The amateurs rule the Internet and amateurs are not good for language. They Twitter constantly about "nothing" (as in, "I'm on the toilet now"). They text abbreviations (abbreviation is the simplest form of language and should never be a standard usage) is not that require an understanding of a simplistic code. Spelling usage and content are injured by it all.

Some say that the technology doesn't ruin the language it just changes it. Well, the people who use the technology are the ones ruining the language, not the devices. Too many simply do not respect clarity in language. The technology gives people the tools to kill the language as they never had before. Given that we humans are lazy, we sometimes will seek refuge in the simplistic. When seeking the simplest language forms all we do is create a state of uncertainty in the form of unclear expressions.

Sad to say, this can't change unless people either greatly reduce using the new technology for the communication (Ha! Cast down your cell phones and rejoin civilization!) or make a conscious effort to use the new technology better. Neither is likely to happen. So we are devolving into poor communicators and probably will be until enough of us say "enough" and demand better. So until they do I, guess I could dumb down more too. As in a more modern closing.... "hey, wht r u up 2 dog".