Language is Devolving

In our 21st society, everyone relies on technology in their daily life. One form of this technology, is in telephones.  When people text on their phones, they do not use the regular, proper form of language.  They instead say "u", "ttyl", and "lol".  I have even caught myself typing "u" and not using formal language when emailing a teacher and writing essays.  Through this incorrect way of communicating language, language itself is devolving into acronyms and less thought provoking speak. 

When speaking, the younger generation now puts their thoughts across using "like" and finishing with "and stuff" because they cannot form complete thoughts as compared to the older generation who think before they speak to ensure they are saying the right thing.

Ever since the introduction of the telegraph and photograph, society has allowed language to devolve and has enjoyed this change.  “The telegraph,” according to Neil Postman, “introduced on a large scale irrelevance, impotence, and incoherence” (Postman 65).  The information the telegraph brought was disconnected. Because the information had nothing to do with them, the information had no meaning and no impact on people so they couldn’t act on anything. People began to speak and converse about pointless topics.  If the topics aren’t important, why talk the same way about unimportant topics, as the important topics?  I believe that since the information people constituted as their daily “news” was not important, the people began to care less about how they spoke and let their language degrade.  Some examples could be the before mentioned such as “like”, “um”, and adjectives like “awesome” instead of words that conveyed real emotion and thought.

Soon after the telegraph, the photograph accompanied news articles and information. It brought blips of information that weren’t connected to each other so the material was fragmented and incoherent. (Sound familiar). The photograph could not capture any idea or abstraction, so discussion could not be made, and therefore nothing could be learned.  The new forms information was being presented in, hindered societal progress.  Without discussion and communication, language does not matter.  So, when the photograph did not allow discussion, language was used less frequently and slightly lost its importance, making it devolve.

 Postman also elaborates on how education on television is degrading the English language. The television education philosophy states how sequence and continuity are not important, nothing should be remembered, and discussion/reason should be excluded.  These teachings are the opposite of what language should be: sequential and connected, memorable, and should have reason and discussion.  Through education on t.v., like Sesame Street, nothing is really taught and children do not learn anything.  Instead, they believe that the fundamentals of language are actually not important, so real language is lost and not used.

Hopefully with English classes in the future, more informational books, and the realization of what is happening to language, it stops devolving and takes a turn in the other direction for the benefit of society.

Works Cited

Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. New York: Penguin Group, 1985. Print.