Twitter. Web 2.0. Micro-blogging. Semantic web. Blah Blah.
Noticed how things are getting shorter and more invasive? From the now ancient e-mail, we've moved on to IM and Twitter. Grammar? Who needs that! Someone's telling us about how he's debating whether to go for a bath or not, and we have the gall to ask for proper English? wtf do we thnk? hes cul, nt lk us.
Who cares if you are debating about improving your personal hygiene? Who cares if you are too sleepy to think? (and by the way, if you're so sleepy, why on earth are you even at a computer to begin with?) We don't think anyone wants to know about how you spent your last ten seconds. We're not in love with you, for god's sake! (Even if we were, we wouldn't be any longer if you made it a point to tell us, every time you coughed)
Whatever happened to the days when people spent hours over a letter, sealing it with perfume (in case it was meant for their special someone) and the lot? We've now been reduced to "I lv u. guess wat i hd fr lnch?" Long conversations involving every topic under the sun have been reduced to a series of profile visits (and photo tags, for the lucky few) on Facebook.
As if telling the world what you're doing every second of every day wasn't enough, we now expect everyone to do so. Hands up, if you want to be informed every time I sneeze. Not too many, are there?
Of course, this is one side of the story. The other side is that there is no escaping the fact that web 2.0 is a fantastic place to sell something. The amount of buzz that can be generated from a Facebook campaign is phenomenal. Just ask Obama. Connecting with people has never been easier. However, what we do with those connections leaves a lot to be desired. A few tags/comments really doesn't do justice to ten years' worth of common experience, does it?
temple by the sea
15 years ago
17 comments:
I am lost on this post... Old fashioned as I am, I don't know about twitter or facebook. Anyway, how come you were cool with "Spce up ur lyf :D"? Was it one of Ponky's?
Heda's idea. It fit the theme though. Youth => short, sms lingo is "cool" (in most cases)
Spce up ur lyf :D was imba. Lol
Regarding micro blogging: The funny thing is that it actually works, very well! Ofcourse, people eventually get bored of trivial things such as sneezes, but the ability to disseminate information has never been greater. During the mumbai attacks, for example, latest news from twitter was faster and more reliable than news channels!
Are arcane grammar rules more important or do we want efficient and useful communication techniques? For all we know, grammar might turn out to be a legacy communication technique that just doesn't scale up to modern standards but, instead, is reduced to "retro" style.
Btw, I just have to know which that award winning post of yours was!
I've never questioned Twitter's usefulness as a tool for spreading information. But come on, you can't seriously tell me that you like deciphering messages that read "wt u up2. me jbls, pls cm hr"
In any case the whole point of the article is not about the standard of English, but about the lack of time we seem to have for each other. Friends ought to mean more than a "hi hows it gng" on Facebook, right?
P.S. "Life As We Know It" is the guilty post.
P.P.S. Do I really use "ridiculous, superfluous vocabulary"?
dude, lt me try 2 pt thngs in prspctv fr u hr. ths wb2.0 is fr ppl in urbn plcs. ppl hu clm 2 b 2o bsy!
anthr prpse o it s 2 lt ppl noe ny ntrstng thng u mte hv cm acrss.
n da addtnl bnft o qck info s alwz der.
dis s wt da ftre hlds. gulu - embrc it! ;)
< this was actually a lot of fun! >
Lol. I took full five minutes to decode that. Again, I'm not trying to deny the usefulness of web 2.0, I'm only lamenting the fact that we seem to have lesser time for things that ought to matter more.
Ya, obviously no one is going to want to read something with lots of short forms. But here and there, it seems fine. Like "u", "info", "ppl" so on. No one ever writes a whole sentence like the one the anonymous person has written.
I'm not too sure about that. My sister and her friends write almost exactly like Anonymous.
The thing is, I don't think I'd be able to survive without all the aforementioned. In touch with my friends halfway across the world with the click of a button et al. I however, completely understand where you're going with the abuse of English angle. Which is why I make it a point to type 'What's up, increase in length of SMSes notwithstanding.
Sorry... That should have been
Which is why I make it a point to type 'What's up with you?' rather than 'wsp wit u', increase in length of SMSes notwithstanding.
Hmmm... While I agree with you on the English angle, (duh!) the main point I wish to make is thus:
We don't seem to have time for things that ought to matter. We consider "keeping in touch" to be a series of profile visits, comments and picture tags. Where are the long conversations, heart-felt discussions, startling revelations and the like? Why are we content with the internet equivalent of lip-service?
You know, that's a very relevant post. But on a serious note I sometimes wonder whether it's the urban loneliness thing that's pushing us into this invasive world of microblogging and facebook. Are people so lonely that they really do want to know everytime you sneeze simply because it's a human being at the other end not an intelligent machine.
Anyway, great post and thanks for adding us on Indiblogger too!
Thank you :)
In fact, I think things will reach a stage where "twitter bots" may become the mainstay of people's daily information content. Who wants to listen to that boring human, anyway?
Great TED video:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/evan_williams_on_listening_to_twitter_users.html
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