Unlanguaged

The flowery language of the future is the simple language of today.

Years from now, people may look back upon our era and wonder if people really talked like that. I mean seriously: we use long sentences. We may bracket several thoughts between a capital letter and a period. We spell all the words out – completely!

LOL, they will say.

But they probably will not say that at all. The pseudo-language of our texting, chatting, and IM-ing seems to be an evolutionary transit for us. The methods and means at our disposal for the communication of thought and ideas are not only compressing the signs and symbols we use, but they are also changing it in vital ways. As someone who likes observing these shifts, I notice subtle changes from the narrative to imagistic. Whereas, at one stage in my life, I might have written long passages about how I feel on a certain day, I may replace it now with :) and it would mean EXACTLY the same thing.

The poets may struggle with this.