Thursday, February 28, 2013

Week 7 Baron ch 1-6

Moving on to Baron and A Better Pencil.  We are constantly posting on Facebook and Tweeting and texting and because of this our grammar has supposedly gotten worse...how is it then that there are still Grammar Nazi's lurking in the shadows.  People still correct each other's grammar in these forums and there are even those that send the grammatically correct text (gasp!).  There's even a Facebook page called Grammar Police that calls out people's grammatical errors.
The supposed degradation of our language is contributing to what Baron calls Teknofear.  This fear of technology taking over and destroying our lives has caused things like the Unabomber attack.  I think it is an irrational fear.  While we are getting more technologically savvy, people adapt and still maintain forums in which correct grammar must be used.
There are problems with this technology as Baron points out.  Once we send something we can't take it back.  Once it's out in cyber land it's there...so you really have to think about what you want to say.  On the other hand Baron says that we react to things quickly but with no wisdom.  We can respond so quickly that we don't think first. Even though we can respond quickly we are only human and want to avoid awkward conversations and miscommunications.  For these reasons people do actually think before they send especially if there in a situation where they want to make a good impression on someone.
I did however like what Baron said about the keyboard and not the pencil being the connection to our inner thoughts.  Basically everyone has a computer or at least knows how to type.  You don't have to learn how to hold a pencil or form letters. You just start typing and immediately your thoughts are on paper (using the term very loosely).

No comments:

Post a Comment