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| Cover image courtesy of Penguin Random House/Riverhead Books |
My oldest son gave this book to me one Christmas, many many years ago, ;) ... and I've been gradually getting through it to the point where the new rules of language don't necessarily feel that new. My bad. Seriously it is, because while it took me nearly two years to finish this book, I actually did enjoy it.
My nonfiction reading generally tends to be historical research necessary for writing historical fiction. I am predominantly a fiction reader with fiction review goals, while my son... is not. Still, we manage to have meaningful conversations within an extended family that spans from the Silent Generation to the future--what are they, Alphas, now? I don't know yet, but the internet plays its role in keeping us together in spite of our vast differences when it comes to social media language. We share memes and catchphrases, movie quotes, and we often ask questions like "WTF is FUBAR?" or "What do you mean, 'You lost the game?' What game?" (For those who just lost the game, you're welcome...)
Language is meant to evolve, and this book breaks down why we need to accept this by focusing on the evolution of internet and social media language in particular. It gives a little nod to every generation for the complex nature of evolving language and their role in its progress. It might give older generations a better perspective on why, say, a period after a texted sentence is potentially a faux pas. Personally as a writer, I'm not fully accepting of the elimination of punctuation in text threads. Sue me. I was born before '69 (nice). But with the internet influence on the ever evolving fluidity of our language, maybe those Millennials, Gen Zs and Alphas (?) will one day change their minds. Gen X and the Boomers can only hope.
Click on the cover image to purchase through Amazon.
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