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r u readin me m8?

Posted on | April 20, 2006 | 2 Comments

Ok, I feel a rant coming over me. ooh-er

I like the English language: it’s effective, rather simple and on the most-part rather eloquent. So who do people insist on bastardising it to the extent that ‘u’ and ‘r’ are considered words?

“So as you learn your ABCs, remember that your mind is like a giant alarm clock that wakes those letters up so that they spell something, so that they mean something, whether they’re on TV or in a book or scratched on the side of a wall somewhere. And while you’re at it, remember that S isn’t the same as 5 and I isn’t the same as 1. Remember that 1 L0V3 U isn’t the same as I LOVE YOU even though it looks cool. Remember that anything that looks cool probably won’t look cool for very long. Remember that very long means, well, probably about a day-and-a-half.” – Jessica Helfand

Above is a quote from an article called ‘Sticks and Stones Can Break My Bones but Print Can Never Hurt Me: A Letter to Fiona on First Reading The End of Print’ by Jessica Helfand. You can find it in the book ‘Screen: Essays on Graphic Design, New Media, and Visual Culture‘. I can’t recommend this book enough, and especially this article; written in the style of Fay Weldon’s ‘Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen’ which is written to her [Helfand's] then-two year-old daughter.

Words mean things, the way you construct sentences, questions and comments all create a flow of letters – of words – of meaning. Missing out words or phoeneticising them ruins this flow. As, I’m sure, does making up fake words like ‘phoeneticising’ but at least I used some logic in constructing that. “Hello mate” carries a whole different meaning to “Hello m8″, which is fine if you can conciously realise that and not think the two are interchangable.

This craze started with Text Messaging, the restrictions on character length forcing kids to contract, abbreviate and adapt language to the medium. Which I can deal with. If you have 192 characters and really need to cram that info in there, do it. If you’re writing “cum2 the pub m8″ you’re not using 192 characters, so bloody write “Come to the Pub mate, please” (no reason not to be polite). Along with actually putting spaces after full stops! “hi cum ovr.i need u” is not the same as “hi cum ovr. i need u” which is not the same as “Hi, come over. I need you”!

The problem is familiarity, on web forums, emails and even the good old-fashioned pen written letter, you have no limit to characters, you don’t need to cram the words in. So why do it? Kids are growing up thinking 1 L0V3 U is an acceptable way to write. And it’s not. It’s not only wrong, but it’s meaningless. It belittles the subtlety of the written word. It narrows the ability to play with the language.

It takes only a little time and effort to complete sentences, to use real words, and the benefit is immeasurable. In both your writing and in your life.

‘LOL’ is not a word, ‘LOL’ should never be written on anything that isn’t the internet. ‘m8′ isn’t a word. Save yourself, and your language. The dumb will only get dumber, the person with a mastery of his language can command a nation.

(ISBN 1-56898-310-7; Screen: Essays on Graphic Design, New Media, and Visual Culture)

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Category: Rants

Comments

2 Responses to “r u readin me m8?”

  1. Hudson
    April 20th, 2006 @ 8:13 pm

    *Standing ovation*

    Couldn’t agree more mate. Think we need to start clamping down hard on it at work.

  2. Dave
    April 22nd, 2006 @ 1:46 am

    *argh*

    I know i’m guilty of that sometimes. Infact the other day I was annoyed at my phone’s predictive text, as, for about five minutes, I truely believed that ‘urself’ was a real word :S

    ‘The dumb will only get dumber’, so true. I have no sympathy for people who bring stupidity on themselves, and it’s something I see more and more frequently :(

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    A picture of my faceMy name is Ben; I'm a designer and photographer.

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