Yesterday when my six-year-old son asked me the spelling of ‘tweet’, I told him to check an online dictionary. What he began to read shocked me. It said, “A message put on Twitter by people”. Don’t believe me? Check for yourself on Cambridge Dictionary website. This got me thinking, what our vocabulary has come to? How regressive am I?
Just a few years ago (or they seem to me) word ‘virus’ made me think about flu. I was still learning about viruses and antivirus (I already knew there was none for flu) when came bugs, worms, Trojans and bots. I realized the problem has not only transformed into something big but somehow managed to change its genus too.
Just before the spread of digitalism, mention of memory was made onlywhen you were over 50 and began losing it. When asked about status, it meant your marital one, or could take away the colour from your face if you were an immigrant and thought you were being asked about residency status. These days, it means what you say on your Facebook page. If you change it as soon as you have a fight with your spouse, you should start looking for marriage counselor already. Display used to be what shop owners put in front of their shops. Apparently now it is why your teenager wants a new iPad.
I cannot say anything against abbreviations used in text messages these days. After all, it gives me all the mental exercise I need. I memorized LOL, OMG, ILU, BRB, early on but for some chat lingo like TGIF, I still have to ponder.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for technology. I let my kindergartner son use my laptop after all. I asked him to search for the meaning of an easy word on Internet. I could tell him myself but I wanted to introduce him to technology and the funny thing is he was able to do it easily.
So keep on texting, googling, skyping, tweeting, facebooking or WDIK (what do I know), but once in a while turn off all your toys and try listening to birds because they tweet too.
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