I dedicate this post to that dear friend of mine whose propensity of insinuating me to blog again has actually worked. Thanks bro, for putting me in touch with my soul again.
An overdose of reading and listening to irritatingly profound psychobabble brings me to that age-old philosophical question again- why are we here? This is what George Carlin had to say. The earth needed plastic so as to create a new "earth plastic paradigm", but the earth didn't know how to make it. So the earth figured out a mechanism to create plastic, spawn a whole new "intelligent" species called the humans. Funny, you might say, but let me cite here a global phenomenon which challenges the superior intelligence of the human species.
So let me call it the "LOL effect". I remember the good old days when I used to read a book in the company of a dictionary trying to find the meaning of those words which sounded like Greek to me. The so called best way to improve one's vocabulary. Times have changed, practices have changed. Today, I sit in front of my computer , "communicating" with my acquaintances with the help of man's one invention which has supposedly made the world a global village, and when I encounter those words which bring a quizzical grunt from my mouth, I fail to find a dictionary which can temme what they mean. LOL, ROFLMAO, BTW, BRB, TTYL....the list just goes on.
The 21st century has brought in its wake all this amazing technology but the fact of the matter is that it is just making the people dumber and dumber. "The internet was supposed to set us free, democratize us, but all it’s really given us is Howard Dean’s aborted candidacy and 24 hour a day access to kiddie porn. People…they don’t write anymore - they blog. Instead of talking, they text, no punctuation, no grammar: LOL this and LMFAO that. You know, it just seems to me it’s just a bunch of stupid people pseudo-communicating with a bunch of other stupid people at a proto-language that resembles more what cavemen used to speak than the King’s English."- well said Mr. Hank Moody*. You might ask me, why blame others when I myself am a part of the problem. Hence, my self-loathing.
All I can say is this. These near dyslexic symptoms of the new and brave generation will pain the heart of any puritan and denigrate the very beauty and idea of language. It's a dangerous proposition- youngsters learning the language through the debilitated practice of chatting rather than reading good literature. Shakespeare might not be as cool as the guy/gal with the piercing in the weirdest of places, but trust me on this, the man from Stratford-upon-Avon can give you a way better insight into the English language. As millions continue to live these decadent lives, please don't forget to simply and proudly Laugh Out Loud, while you go on LOLing.
* This post has been strongly inspired by an episode of Californication. It's a must watch.
To pay obeisance to you My Lord
6 months ago
10 comments:
Lolz....
Like the philosopher Jagger said-
You can't always get what you want
Whatsay Bro?
You just read my mind. You never cease to amaze me.
LOL! :-)
I call these random chat acronyms 'netese' (like Chinese or Japanese)! :P
Do you remember a period when people used to totally murder the language through outrightly dyslexic chats? As in: "What's going on?" would become "wts gng n?". :|
It still exists, but yeah, the frequency is lower, since people have actually started to spend more time typing.
You didn't mention how netese was born, though. Apparently, in the early days of the internet, speeds were low and charges were counted by the second. So people had to type fewer stuff for ease-of-transmission and to save time (and money). :-)
Awesome post, and great comeback man. :D
Blogrolling you!!
And, is this 'friend', me? :-O
Honoured man. *tears well in my eyes*
:-D Keep blogging, whenever you get time. :)
@Hari
Thanks for the snippet of information bro. Looks like netese is an offshoot of shorthand in the internet. Dude, I have an idea lets get the word netese into the dictionary, coined by Mr. Harishanker.
i have an excuse for the pseudo communication - my calligraphy is pathetic!!!
"It's a dangerous proposition- youngsters learning the language through the debilitated practice of chatting rather than reading good literature"
How about an alternate scenario(totally hypothetical) in which young minds of India get a 'once-in-a-lifetime' chance to spend one month interacting with the sharpest minds of India in the hostels of IIT?
Boy, will we have a problem in our hands then!
Great to see you blogging again mate...
I should say, the Swarna course has left an indelible impact on you.
@panicker
It sure seems so.
Hmm, the misuse of the English language is growing exponentially. In fact, schools in Ireland, I think are now accepting sms english in their exams. Their justification seems to be that english needs to switch to a more layman form, that it should be read as it is written.
Dunno f its ryt tho :)
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