It's true that texting while talking to someone is rude, but throughout history people have used written words as a way of expressing themselves in a more complete manner than through conversation.
Now, I'm not saying that texting hasn't devolved into a lesser form of communication. For example this is a quote from the Facebook of a friend of mine, I apologize for this atrocity.
i thik last night was deacent def had fun
But, communicating through text is not inherently a lower form of communication. In fact I'd dare to say that it is a necessary part of communication when used sparingly with face-to-face communication and telephone calls. These aren't levels of communication so much as they are equal categories.
Like all forms of communication there are levels of articulation to it. For example, speech is great, but there are things like this.
Question Time: Do you believe that speech in the two examples I gave is the creation of a new dialect (cyberdialect?) or simply the degradation of language?
Degradation. There are plenty, I suppose, who will claim that it is merely the inevitable dialect growing from the advent of technology. While I will not deny this, the inevitability of a prospect is not a claim of quality. A bad thing may be as inevitable as a good thing.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Orwell once said: "But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought."
If we continue to communicate as such, we shall begin to think as such. Clear, precise communication will gradually die.
I have a question as well:
How many woes is the world have resulted from simple faults in communication?
It is true that there have been countless examples of communication errors causing hardships. But how many of these errors come from one person's poorly educated speech, and how many come from differences between fully legitimate dialects?
ReplyDeleteWhen a Londoner asks a New Yorker if he could spare a fag and offends him is it the Londoner who is responsible for the offense because he said the offending word? Or is it the responsibility of the New Yorker because his dialect is more recent development.