The English language is being tweeted to death.
The social networking site Twitter has conditioned an entire generation to crunch expression into 140 characters or less, a process involving clever applications such as "gr8" to mean "great." That's quite a verbal mutilation to save two letters. Lately, I've seen "gr8" pop up in e-mails--at work.
I've written about the decline and fall of the English language before. I most likely will again. There's no place else for a writer/editor/English major/word lover/book reader to go in this depressing situation other than the blank page. Or, if blogging, the empty text box.
Who "pens" an essay today? Nobody does; not even I. (Yes, it's "I," not "me"--is anyone listening as I scream into the grammatical void?) Today, we all "key" it. Or "text" it. Especially if it's 140 characters or less. But brevity has always been a challenge for me. No wonder I'm not much of a tweeter.
