Blogs

The subjective topics in academia seem to suffer from the highest amount of oral and written atrocities. Front and foremost in our high-tech world are the text-atrocities. (Look, I just made a new word, so it must be true.)

For example, should I happen to text you that 5 x 5 = 20 and insist that it's just the "way we do math," you would probably put up a great argument. Perhaps enough people would like to decide that Washington, D.C. is in Washington state, or that Hollywood is not in Los Angeles. The new President of the United States must be President Bernie Sanders if we think it so in our colloquial neck of the woods.

No, you say? We cannot change the facts, you say? If your so sure, idk what your talking about. I may as well SMH and go on. For one thing that's 4 sure, textbreviation (another new word) has become a harrowing nightmare for most people who are Baby Boomers. So, to regain my sanity (it's shaky anyway), I occasionally slip on over to Ellen DeGeneres' Clumsy Thumbsy site for a chuckle and so that I can blame it on technology.

I am unsure whether to be more bothered by poor grammar and the endorsement and adamant defense of same or in the deleting of letters from words and then pretending they are words. Perhaps we can throw both abominations together and text like this:

I seen ur bae 2day. Wow, YOLO, but she b w/a dood.

While your officially butchering the English language, go ahead and make it good. How bout dis:

U go wit me? Hav u eat der?

I think, "Sure, I will meet you there. While you're waiting for me, please do not text me in 21st Century Technobonics (new word #3), because when the bill comes for our meal, and I debate that $15 will pay half of the $40 owed because I just do Mat like dat, "you're" blood pressure will arise to astonishing levels.

One of the main reasons I believe this has become the norm is the explosion of social media. If you ask millennials and America's youth the social media platforms they use the most, you'll probably get Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter. Those four sites alone total over 3.3 billion active monthly users. No one writes like Charles Dickens on these sites. Social media, along with texting, are the two main contributors to this, let's say, grammar nightmare.

Furthermore, when I do something nice or give a gift, I have become so accustomed to being told "Your welcome!" that I finally have retrained myself to just realize that the welcome must be all mine. Okay, I can rationalize that you are (which contracts into YOU'RE) giving to me a benevolent verbal gratitude, so it must be MY welcome.

LMAO today reading an article about texting faux pas. It was reassuring to me that I'm not the only so-called "Grammar Nazi" left. Or, as a society, perhaps we can also alter other dimensions, such as math, geography, science and so on. And that, my friend, is my defense for penciling in "Rocket Scientist" on my resume.

- Gordon Hayes

Gordon Hayes hails from New York City where he is a marketing associate by day and blogger/wanna be funny guy by night.