SMS, IM, E-Mail: The death of good grammar?
The thread about getting rid of the auto-period at the end of sentences brought to mind something I've pondered for a while. With the advent and proliferation of SMS, IM, E-Mail, etc., are we seeing the beginning of the end of proper English language usage, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, form, and such?
I'm no prude, and I like to use shortcuts, abbreviations, acronyms, and such in my e-communications, too. But I am seeing an ever-increasing amount of it creeping into more formal types of communication. Moreover, I see more and more mistakes in published news articles, newspapers, television graphics, and other media.
I keep my business and professional writing as formal and error-free as possible (perhaps not perfect, but pretty good I think). I'm not talking about typographical errors, occasional misspellings, and such. We all make those mistakes. In addition, I'm not talking about breaking down text messages in detail, looking for dangling participles and split infinitives.
But I see a younger generation coming up with (seemingly) little or no regard for even the most basic rules of proper English. I know there are exceptions, but as a group, I think it's a legitimate observation. I just wonder how things will look (or read) ten, twenty, or fifty years from now. I wonder what Keats, Hawthorne, Eliot, Hemingway, Faulkner, Frost, Whitman, Wilde, Poe, Cummings, Hughes, et al would have to say about it?
Okay, pondering over.