We the ppl

The other day I was standing in the kitchen of the retirement home I work at, talking to a fellow server. She, like me, is a student at the University of Oregon. While I can’t recall the context of the conversation exactly, I will never forget when she said that, “other ppl involved in the situation might think differently.”

Now, you might be wondering why I chose to abbreviate people. That seems rather unprofessional, right? You would never use such abbreviations when writing an article, or a paper to a professor, or a professional email, or while talking… Would you? Apparently not. Because that’s exactly what my co-worker did. She abbreviated ‘people’ while talking to me.

I want you now to say a sentence (maybe something like, ‘we the people’) but try abbreviating people. ‘We the ppl.’ It seriously takes more work to say ‘ppl’ than ‘people.’ Of course this isn’t the case in texting, which is why to my dismay, text messaging lingo was invented.

I never use text messaging lingo. I spell out all my ‘you’s,’ ‘see’s,’ ‘be’s’ and I will always ‘be right back,’ but never ‘brb.’ Honestly, my text messages usually follow AP Style. On top of that, I don’t text people that use this type of lingo and slang, because it drives me crazy. When did it become ok to spell night ‘nite?’ The word ‘cause’ is already a slang of ‘because,’ so what is up with ‘cuz?’

The truth of the matter is, I think text messaging lingo is almost dangerous to our society. Words are becoming extinct, and others are evolving into something far less sophisticated than what they started out as. When it becomes socially acceptable to use slang and abbreviations in emails, texts, and status updates, pretty soon it crosses over into college papers and every day speech. It kills off other, properly spelled words.

Words with more than three syllables practically live in a figurative museum. Let’s take a group of high school (or even college) kids and ask them to read the Declaration of Independence. Or The Constitution. It’s as if it is written in a different language! No one talks like that anymore – those words don’t even exist. Is this really for the better? If the founders of the Constitution were writing it today, it would undoubtedly read, ‘We the ppl.’

The worst thing about this all is that the demise of the English Language was predicted over 60 years ago by a man named George Orwell in his novel 1984. In the book, a new language is emerging called Newspeak. It is a reduced and simplified version of the language, getting rid of any superfluous and unnecessary words. We do this today – instead of saying something is more fun, it becomes funner. We don’t say it’s not fun, we say it’s unfun. It cannot be denied we are getting dangerously close to Newspeak via text messaging, and further away from our country’s heritage. And when no one can understand the Constitution anymore, who will be there to interpret it for us? IDK, but OMG Im sure we the ppl wont b the 1s.

Here are some videos to watch to prove my point a little more:

Me, Myself and I

Things we Say Wrong