The internet is ruining the language of young people

Hi fellow Techies,

I have just came across a tweet which has motivated me to write a blog on this topic. The topic concerned is how the Internet might be ruining the language of young people.

First of all I don't think there is even a need to have such a debate, but there are just a few people who exist in the world, (luckily not that many on the Internet) that see technology as an evil beast, with the only intention of doing harm. There are a few of those people that don't understand the Internet, and have trouble adapting to new things. These same people often also dislike any major change which is happening, one example being globalization. 

As you all know, I have a very strong opinion, which is exactly opposite of that from the tweet. As said before on many occasions there are some very strong reasons why I am an early adopter of new technology. First of all this is what has changed my life. From a poor student, not achieving anything and constantly getting into trouble, it has completely changed me to seek knowledge, soon after I have started learning how to code. Now I work for Google, always at the forefront of innovation testing what can and cannot be done. Being allergic to new ideas, and new technologies is what makes me mad the most. This is because without new innovative thoughts, we will reach a technological standstill. If this happened, then we will unlearn how to innovate, meaning that we are at risk when "necessity is the mother of invention" not being able to respond if we were suddenly threatened.

Now to the actual debate. Just because it is more observable that language is changing right now does not mean it is ruining our current language. Language has been changing ever since it has been invented, and just because you might not like change in language, as it is unfamiliar to you, it should not be dismissed because of that. In many schools Shakespeare is still taught, as it is a completely different style of language. Hundreds of years after his huge impact on the English language he is being celebrated for his huge contribution to the language. Now the innovators are doing the exact same thing, coming up with huge amounts of new words, and all they receive is criticism. It could be possible that in another couple of hundred years they will be celebrated for their huge contribution of the language.

One important thing to remember is that when analyzing the change of language it is important to distance your self from it. This happens through time and this is exactly what historians do. The majority of historians accept that it takes between 20-50 years to be fully capable of analyzing what exact impact a certain event had. The exact same counts for analyzing language. To be able to properly evaluate the change of language you need time. The Internet started to become more common about 20 years ago, but the actual change in language started a lot later. This means that not enough time has passed to fully evaluate the impact that technology has in the use of language.

One part of the argument that I find especially hard to understand is why the language of young people might be ruined by the Internet. Learning this language will become more and more important as it gets used more common. Mizuko Ito, lead researcher of the study 'living and learning with new media' said "It may look as though kids are wasting a lot of time hanging out with new media, whether its on Facebook or sending instant messages, but calling it a waste of time is not correct". She argues that using the Internet to communicate, and getting exposed to the Internet language, the children, which are often called 'digitally native' can learn many skills. These skills can range from a lot of things  like new technological skills that they have picked up learning how to use a new piece of software, to some other skills that could be learnt according to Mrs Ito through the Internet like how to network with other people or managing a public identity. These sorts of skills will become more and more important in the future, for people to be able to compete with an ever enlarging competition. The new and adopted language will be just as important. This will be the foundation of the communication our leaders and the entire business world will use in the next generation.

For those that are reading this and still have the same opinion which opposes mine, I have one request. Support the use of technology for your children. You might not like it, but only with the technological competence there is a way for them to compete in the modern business market and in the future. I was not one of the lucky ones whose parents would make sure that the technology in their house would be top of the line, but due to my strong will and dedication I have somewhat caught up this lack of experience. Catching up has only become harder though, I was in the first generation of digitally native, meaning that the competition was not as large. It is not completely impossible to catch up, but it makes the life of young people so much easier if you get them a good computer and encourage them to learn to code.