Webupon

I’m pretty sure that we can all remember the time when the news was dominated – well, maybe dominated is too strong – with interviews with English professors proclaiming the end of a way for anyone to express themselves. No longer could one write to their love, expressing themselves thoughtfully and eloquently on stationary. Now it was the cold communication, typed up on a word processor, to simply be printed and mailed off. Then came the instant messaging, in which the professors realized they were on the verge of a “language crises”. Expressions how now become smiley faces and the online abbreviations and language started to affect every day speech and writing, blurring the differences between RL (Real Life) and cyperspace. And now with the emerging popularity of social networking sites, in which even the slight “intimacy” of emails has diminished to posting quick comments on another’s wall. What will come next, an even more simple method of communication that once again the professors will fret about the loss of more language?

I am pretty sure that many people in this new age communicate mostly by emails, text messages, voice chats, but still the most important method of communication, face to face. And through all of this, you can see that hand written notes are hardly on this list anymore. That is because in today’s world of business, who can spend time worrying about their handwriting, when almost any computer can crank out a letters that are both legible and (if you’re willing to deal with the fonts) look just as nice. Today’s world has started to value efficiency over art, which to some degree is a natural progression when the money starts to become the driving force.

But I’m getting off topic here, which is the next point actually. The use of the internet as the principle median of communication has created a system in which logical train of thoughts has started to deteriorate. Rapidly responding to each another’s text, we stop thinking, and in our writing, it slowly becomes the carefree conversations that many of us enjoy. But writing was supposed to be the ultimate expression in a way, and it has failed to keep itself at this status.

Today’s world is much different from the world that language and writing was originally invented for. Tell me if I am wrong, but when writing was invented; I believe that it was in itself another medium of art, and at that time, the magical flow of ink was enough to captivate millions. But today’s world is different, and though thought is decreasing a little, it will soon go back. Because now, instead of fancy letters, we are looking towards the future, attempting to find what those before us could not.