Social media is the cause of bad grammar
ON SOME social media platforms I am known as a Grammar Nazi, also known as Grammar Nasty.
The simple reason is that when I see a word misspelt or abbreviated unnecessarily, I feel obligated to correct it.
The way social media lingo goes these days my work is cut out for me. Just for the record, “misspelt” or “misspelled” are both acceptable.
Here’s my take on the above. Many of us were fortunate to have gone to school: some at least to primary if not secondary school.
It took our parents much sacrifice to ensure that we went regularly, dressed in uniform and hopefully set a good example.
At our place of education we were primarily taught to read and write. It took many years of tests and examinations to ensure that when we left those hallowed places of learning, we were equipped to communicate – either written or verbal – adequately.
Through further reading and speaking, we honed our communication skills.
Then, in 1992, in the small university town of Stellenbosch a man called Herman Heunis developed a mobile communication system that took South Africa by storm.
It was only in 2015 that Mxit was officially shut down due to being overshadowed by more popular social media like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
However, that was the start of the descent of general bad grammar. Okay, it was initially young ones who used it more and they used short cuts to get their message across quickly.
With the advent of the WhatsApp, even older ones are becoming lazy writers. There appears to be a certain code of sorts.
For example LOL apparently refers to Laugh Out Loud. I got quite upset when on the death of my mom, an elderly lady WhatsApped me with a sympathy message and ended it with “LOL”.
I ignored it until a few more messages arrived from her with the same parting shot. I then asked her, tactfully, if she knew what those three letters of the alphabet stood for. She innocently wrote back: “Lots Of Love”. Get my point?
LIB to me always meant an abbreviation of library. But heaven forbid if you tell someone on social media: “I will see you at LIB”. It apparently means, in social media lingo, “lying in bed”.
AMA was what I used to call me dear late mother. In texting language it means “Ask Me Anything”.
One of the most irritating terms that is used these days and has grown in monstrous popularity is BAE. It supposedly means “Before Anyone Else”, and could refer to a loved one or a good friend. To me, it’s become a bane of my existence.
Then there is DFTBA which stands for “Don’t forget to be awesome”. I mean that is just daft.
It is funny to see even prim and proper people using the abbreviation LMAO, not realising that they are in fact using a word that they would not usually use in speaking.
Where it gets out of hand totally is when individuals start shortening words to their own preference. The way they can see it. It can be quite a literary abortion sometimes.
The recipient may not be in tune with your way of thinking. Can you imagine shortening the following on social media: “Can you please assess the damage?”
Moving on, there is the misuse of a word that is the most common on social media, especially Facebook. I must mention my two friends Sharon Pillay and Rovanya Ramdan here.
This irks them endlessly and it does me too.
The word “divine” has six letters of the alphabet. How does changing it to “devine” make it shorter? However, most users on Facebook use the latter spelling. Why? To sound cute? Sorry, but it is not working.
Call me a purist or pedantic, I do not think that we should waste all the effort our parents made to enable us to speak and write well. I was castigated once on social media by people saying there are more important issues in the world than poor grammar.
Yes dear friends, I agree. However, if you speak and write well, it can go a long way to assist in helping solve those issues in a clear and accurate manner.
It alleviates sending out wrong signals to people. It prevents misunderstandings and potential arguments.
I read something interesting about speaking well, which I can relate to texting well. Speaking well is not an act. It is not a switch in the brain to turn on when talking formally.
Even when with friends, try not to let your guard down and descend into speaking “kitchen English”. As the British people say, “learn to speak proper”.
So too with social media texting. Spend an extra minute or two and type words fully and correctly. The person receiving it is important to you. Don’t show disrespect by undermining their intelligence.
In conclusion, if you send social media messages to me and can’t abide by the above suggestions – then don’t text me, I’ll text you!