Value, Technology, and Language

Placing a great deal of value on knowledge can have devastating effects; one can either be left with a sense of complacency and hopelessness due to the idea that knowledge in limitless, or one can feel a sense of urgency to strive to obtain as much knowledge as possible. With the widespread use of the Internet, information and knowledge is at our fingertips, but are we using this technology to benefit our society as a whole or as a means to sustain pleasure for oneself? We can only assume that there are a vast number of answers to that question, but one past the motivator and directly address the problem.

Growing up in a digital age is a new concept that did not need to be addressed until quite recently, and there is much debate about the benefits and potential harms of this “new media”. The new voice of the digitalized society will soon be a hybridization and amalgamation of both the literal and oral, this is already seen through acronyms as “LOL” and the abbreviations of words such as “bc” for “because”. The question of whether this will lead in an advance or decline of literacy should be addressed. One can make the argument that the literate user of this hybrid language has the ability to compartmentalize, knowing when to employ academic language over the hybrid. That might be the case for those who are already literate and adopting the new language, but what about those who are being born into this new language? If we keep oversimplifying the English language, two very alarming things may occur: 1. The English language evolves past the point of recognition, leaving behind and losing its structured and historical roots, and 2. the inability of non-English speakers to adopt English as a second language. The latter concern further presses the idea of losing English as a global language.

The statistics on digital media is actually quite frightening, it was the only text that really spoke out to me because I could plainly see the causality between activities such as texting its negative ramifications. But also, truthfully, it’s the only issue that I directly take part in. Should we just throw our hands up accept the presence of the booming technological era? Or should we embrace it with open arms? I’m on the fence about which is feasible and which is more beneficial. We use technology every day, and it is not until we take a step back and gain perspective that we can actually see that it’s hurting us. For the time being, I believe we have more pressing matters at hand that can be much more easily rectified – such as the state of the economy and issues of immigration – so problems with the evolution of our language will have to be blissfully ignored.