How MySpace Is Destroying Language

After my previous posts on language where several commenters pointed out that language is an evolving thing and that I don't get it and I retorted that it's my blog and I'll be a curmudgeon if I want to (Ed Note: not exactly an intellectual conversation), digg.com linked to an unscientific analysis of how MySpace is a failure of humanity. My favorite part:

MySpace has created a safe haven for a scary phenomenon. It fosters a snowballing language deterioration led by the youth. New dialects and minimalist communication conventions appear among friend groups. While I know there’s no ‘one American dialect’ and I can’t force my opinions on what communication is, I do know that the development of minimalist text message-like language on the web is about five steps back from the middle ages.

A man after my own heart.

Comments

• Anonymous
  April 23, 2006
  The great thing about the Internet is that everyone can express their opinions.
  
  The danger of the Internet is when you only read opinions that agree with your own.
  
  So it’s understandable that you commented “A man after my own heart”
  
  All your blog readers understand that this is “your blog” along with “your” opinions. But your adamant that your “agree” that English is an “evolving” language – but your write about how we need to permanently standardize spelling, and now you seem to be offended that MySpace is destroying language. (I’m guessing that you feel Instant Messaging & Email, are also destroying our language)
  
  The history of spoken languages were originally influenced only by “speaking” – but since those times, writing & reading have greater impact. So without retracing the roots of cuneiform to the printing press; you once again seem to “not get it” (or more appropriately “not accept it”)
  
  English is SUPPOSED to change – and not ALL of the changes will be to your liking . . .but that’s fine too! (^_^)
  
• Anonymous
  April 23, 2006
  In the course of six paragraphs, you've implied I'm narrow minded, that I don't get "it" (whatever it is), and that I am also not educated about the history of language.
  
  Maybe the purpose of these entries is simply to see who responds.
• Anonymous
  April 23, 2006
  My mistake -- I expected more from a Microsoft employee's blog (as opposed to a social MySPace Blog).
  
• Anonymous
  April 23, 2006
  LOL. Nicely done.
• Anonymous
  April 23, 2006
  :-P
  
  ;-)
  
  :)
• Anonymous
  April 23, 2006
  Retored = (newly invented word) past tense, meaning 'to retort' ;-)
• Anonymous
  April 23, 2006
  Language without letters. ;-)
• Anonymous
  April 23, 2006
  Alex: Hoist by my own petard.
• Anonymous
  April 23, 2006
  ;-)
• Anonymous
  April 23, 2006
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  April 24, 2006
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  April 24, 2006
  People have been talking about the "death of language" for a long, long, long time. One example that I like to cite is that some greek philosophers actually bemoaned the practice of writing because they thought it would destroy human memory. How's that for language purity?
  
  The bigger issue at play is that, for the first time ever, our society is watching language change in real time. It's like all of us edu-macated adults get to watch, through the window of sites like MySpace and Friendster and YouTube, how our language (note the emphasis) is being hijacked by the young. Maybe we're all just a little upset that the separation between young and old(er) has never been more apparent, or visible?
• Anonymous
  January 23, 2008
  PingBack from http://moneydick.com/wordpress/2006/04/23/science-of-myspace/