Language in our lives

Cars get better gas mileage. Computers are smarter. The Internet is quicker. Phones are smarter.

Planes are faster. Technology is growing. Just as most things in the world are becoming more and more technologically advanced and efficient, its languages are also becoming more efficient. Today it seems as if people are crunched for time with tight schedules and busy lives. Because of this the human race is constantly rushing around and trying to get things done faster to preserve time. This is why technology is a huge part of people’s lives and in very high demand.

Items such as phones, computers, and cars help achieve daily tasks in a timely fashion. This lifestyle has also caused a change in daily spoken language, and language over text. People no longer worry about having perfect grammar or great word choices. In modern society people are more concerned with getting one’s point across in the quickest way possible while keeping the audiences attention. In George Carlin’s video about Euphemisms he talks about how over time words have evolved. They started out as practical words that made sense, then they turned into longer names with added words and extra detail, and now they are becoming meaningless abbreviations.

For example, shell shock, becoming battle fatigue, then operational exhaustion, after that, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and now we just know it as PTSD. This evolution of the name of this condition starts practical and becomes soft language, and then a quick abbreviation that’s easy to spit out. There are many other examples of words that have gone through the same change over many years. In Mother Tongue the author Amy Tan talks about how her spoken language changes depending on whom she is speaking to. This is interesting because her language becomes more casual when she is speaking to her husband, and even more casual when she is talking to her mother who only speaks broken English. The alternative is that when she is giving talks or speaking to an audience she uses proper language, being careful of her word usage.

People today are speaking with a lack of intelligence and patience because they are caught up in fast paced society, not because of a lack of intelligence. Looking at our language today, and the way people speak, reflects the average person’s fast pace life and busy schedule. People do not have time everyday to waste talking with elaborated sentences and extremely descriptive detail. This also follows the pattern of technology usage that society has adapted to, which has added to the impending speed of the common, American lifestyle. Language is casual in everyday lives, but this is not because people are uneducated but because people are always busy.