As a copy editor and proofreader I’ve seen this more frequently and these are some examples of what I’ve noticed:
- Words such as ‘selfie’, ‘hashtag’, ‘like’, ‘wall’, ‘profile’ are now commonplace in the way we speak and, therefore, in the way we write.
- We seem to spend hours glued to a screen these days. Smartphones, tablets and laptops are dominating our lives to such an extent that the way we communicate is now being influenced by the way we interact with this technology.
- We seem to have adopted abbreviations and acronyms into our language to express ourselves, e.g. LOL, Gr8, OMG etc. Here are some more…
- We are turning proper nouns and names into verbs, e.g. ‘google it’, ‘facebook me’ etc.
- Hashtags (#) are now being used in everyday writing to emphasise something.
- Our communication styles are becoming less formal and because we are conscious of Twitter’s 140 character limit, we are becoming much more succinct in the way we say things.
- All these things, I’ve noticed, are causing a very casual attitude to spelling and grammar.
Maybe we just ought to step back for a moment and reflect on how things are changing before we get totally subsumed by technology.
Ask yourself these questions:
- When was the last time you used a pen or pencil to write something?
- What’s happened to your hand-writing? Has it deteriorated because you’re using a keypad more than a pen?
- When was the last time you held a book in your hand and read it – instead of reading from a screen?
- When was the last time you hand-wrote a letter? Emails have taken over as the preferred means of communication, even in business.
OK, you can call me an old-fashioned traditionalist but, whilst I embrace these technological changes, I still believe there is a place for using pens/pencils and handwriting as well as extricating ourselves away from a screen to read a book.
Above all, I firmly believe that, in business, the way we communicate with our customers is essential if we are to persuade them to continue to do business with us. We don’t only communicate with them via social media, so it’s vital that we preserve our more traditional ways of communicating, especially by making sure that our spelling and grammar are correct.