In this
increasingly warped universe where you never know where the next viral
phenomenon will emerge, Weird Al Yankovic (musical parodist from the late 1970s)
may have done more than he intended with his latest video parody, “Word Crimes” (set to Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” and
with 12.5 million views at this posting.)
Although
linguists are having a hey day critiquing Weird Al’s satirical take on our
generation’s errant grammar (it’s true), they may be missing the greater message
– or warning – to “wise up” and “listen up.”
This new world of online social communications is having an impact on
how we are perceived and maybe even on our school and career trajectory. Consider his opening lines (minus the hey,
hey, heys and woos):
Everybody Shut Up
Everyone listen
up
If you can't
write in the proper way, (lousy writer!)
If you don't know
how to conjugate,
Hey!
Maybe you
flunked that class!
And maybe now you
find,
That people mock
you onliiiiiiiine!
(Everybody wise up!)
Hidden amongst
all the jazzy graphics and word play, Weird Al implores, “make literacy your mission,” and “show the world you are
not a clown.”
So, are we the most inarticulate
generation to come along?
While I always
think it’s a “Good time to learn some grammar,” much of what Weird Al is
parodying are not “Word Crimes,” but new forms of digital communications that are
transforming how we converse with friends and family alike. We are not “incoherent,” we just need to
figure out how and when to use these new forms and for what purpose.
Take text
messaging (or SMS – short message service). While I’m not a fan of all those
additional letters that try to underscore a point (paaarrrttyyy!!!), and the
misspellings that might be cute (peepl), I do give the thumbs up to the
inherent convenience and time-efficiency of replacing words with one letter (“are”
with “r”) or replacing letters with numbers (gr8!) - perfectly appropriate for
a quick check in with friends and family; but not perfectly appropriate in a
college essay or a job seeking cover letter.
And, those OMGs, LOLs, and BRBs are IMO (in my opinion) creative,
trendy, sometimes crude, and often times hilarious.
Are you fluent in
emojis? Using Emojis, or replacing words
with characters, is lots of fun and here to stay as described in this Jessica
Bennett NY Times story, “Emoji
Have Won the Battle of Words.”
According to Bennett’s research, the website Emojitracker finds that people are averaging 250
to 350 emoji tweets a second! And “emoji”
was crowned as this year’s top-trending word by the Global Language Monitor,
and was added to the Oxford English Dictionary.
But what I find most exciting is emoji’s potential to break down
cultural language barriers. If enough
characters are created and standardized, this new symbolic system could be used
to communicate no matter what language you speak.
And then there
are #hashtags. Although hashtags were created as searchable, group-able, metatags
to be used in social marketing channels (e.g. Twitter, Instagram), you’ve no
doubt noticed that they have taken on a life of their own, as spoofed in this
clip of Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake, “#Hashtag”
which, at the time of this posting, had 25,362,548 views!My 21-year-old-niece is known by her friends as “The Hashtag Queen.” As a proud and clever Millennial, she, like her peers, has turned hashtagging into a speaking style, and maybe even a new art form. Here’s an example of one of her recent, spontaneous Instagram hashtag “poems”:
Having a good
eyebrow day.
#lovethyself
#lovethyselfie
#whosaysthyanymore
#letsbringitback
#thy
Hilarious.
But here’s the
thing…how do we resolve all of these new forms when it comes to school and
career? Do text messages, emojis and
hashtags have a place in communications when we want to impress? When
we want others to listen up? And, how
about in our professional lives?
My son’s
religious-school teacher is brilliant, a terrific storyteller and has her own
successful blog. Over dinner, she told
us that her fiancé recently accused her of “still speaking in her text voice,” (she
admittedly threw an OMG into their conversation). Can she blame it on teaching kids all day?
This spurred on a
conversation about using your “text voice” in the work place. She had been put in charge of reviewing
resumes from potential job applicants.
“Some were great,” she said, “But the text speak has infiltrated their
resumes. Some really needed to review
their grammar, get rid of the casual speak, and understand that ‘Btw’ doesn’t
belong in a resume. And, when it came to
the job applicant’s voice messages, I’m not sure that they were ever taught how
to use a phone.”
(What is the deal
with the telephone and kids’ inability to use this old-school contraption for a
productive conversation? I’ll get to that
in my next blog…)
So, Thank you
Weird Al for a gr8 video, chock full of great advice. It’s true.
We all need to “familiarize ourselves with the nomenclature” and stop
using verbal tics like, “like.” But no Weird Al, it’s not a crime to play with
syntax, emoji or LOL. Truth be told, we
are now living through a sociolinguistic transformation brought on by the
ubiquitous Internet. And, like most things
in life, there is a time, a place and a hashtag.
I’d love to hear
your thoughts and stories. Feel free to post
your comments – all forms accepted!
