What are those young people talking about?

I read several articles about the language use among today's adolescents. It's hot topic. And it completely puzzles and frustrates older generations. The first article was about the ways adolescents communicate online through social networking websites such as Facebook. The article asserted that teenagers are creating a new language to keep secrets from adults. It says they have created this language in order to talk about alcohol, drugs, and parties without their parents knowing. This language goes beyond simple abbreviations. Many teenagers are purposefully spelling words in a creative manner in order to keep their actions private.

The other article was a blog post on the Huffington Post website in which John Brown, a professor at Georgetown, stated that America's dirty little secret is that many young people simply can't speak. Their conversations are continuously peppered with words such as "like" and "whatever." He contends that there are most likely multiple reasons for the disappearance of the use of proper English among the young. There isn't much emphasis on rhetoric nowadays, and we live in a world that has become dependent upon technology such as texting and instant messaging in which abbreviations are common and acceptable. This new form of colloquial language is quickly taking over.

In both articles these vast language changes stem, at least in part, from advances in technology. Sure, often times we talk about how one language is being affecting by other languages, but clearly technology also has a great impact on language. And the youth are heading the charge. This shows how much power young generations have on language and how it evolves over time, for the better or the worse.

I agree that many of us need to steer away from frequent use of "like" and "whatever." Occasionally I catch myself overusing these words and I am horrified by the way I sound. It's hard to sound intelligent or serious when you are constantly saying them. They seem to automatically take away from whatever information you are trying to convey. We should definitely work on removing these fillers from conversation because they are superfluous and can only detract. It's not that all influences from Facebook and texting are bad, it's just that we need to know when it is appropriate to use our different levels of communication. We need to know when to flip the switch. Among friends it doesn't matter if every other word is "like," but in academic and formal settings conventional English is proper. As long as this distinction is made I don't think there is an issue with our language use today. I think it's awesome that teenagers are creating their own language. It's cool, though it proves inconvenient for parents. Everyone just needs to understand the difference between proper, conventional English and our own little idiosyncratic ways of speaking.

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-brown/like-it-or-not-americas-d_b_550981.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/7632133/Facebook-speak-Teenagers-create-secret-online-language.html