An Article About Articles?
The world revolves around words these days. A stranger observing our dizzy society of email, text messaging and instant messenger would begin to believe that we are the most literate, highly develop country in the world. LOL!
My children used to speak to me in complete sentences. I raised them to speak and write grammatically correct English. Yet somewhere in the bowels of our society lurked a word-snatching demon that slowly began to steal their words at about age twelve. It began with an email.
"Mom, I love you. XOX"
Now I receive text messages that resemble a secret code written during the last Great War.
"M - lvg skl. cu ltr. - A"
To make matters worse, I have had to learn the code in order to survive (and communicate) in their world myself.
“A – whr u go? – M”
“CBs”
“bk @ 6”
“k – lvu”
Where are my children and who has stolen their language? When did complete words and punctuation marks become relics of the past? Will we one day need a Rosetta Stone to read classic works such as “Moby Dick” and ‘A Tale of Two Cities”? I can see it now – Cliff’s Notes, the abbreviated, abridged text version (CN – ab abgd txt ver).
The decoding process does not end when they arrive home. Visions I once had of leisurely dinnertime conversations have faded into the stark reality of painfully pulling conversation out of them like a bad trip to the dentist.
“Did you have a good day at school”
“Uh-huh”
“What was interesting about your day?”
“IDK”
“Do you remember anything about today?”
“mooomm!”
Perhaps when they grow up and have children of their own we will once again have conversations in English. I have visions of bouncing babies on my knee while rocking on a wide front porch, and a gentle southern breeze blowing though the magnolia trees. My daughters will sit on wicker chairs sipping iced tea while my son barbeques on the patio grill.
“Mom, would you like another glass of tea?”
“IDK”
“Grandma! Come swing me.”
“brb. bebe nds swgn. lvu”