Text messages have actually killed the spoken word. Words are writhing around on the floor, caught up in their death throes, as a nation of children bludgeons the life right out of them. Abbreviations, made up words, exclamations, lack of puncuation...all of these things run rampant over e-mail and cell phones, and we're supposed to suck it up and go with the flow.
I refuse to go with that flow. I love the internet, and e-mail, and the immediacy of the knowledge that the web can impart. HOWEVER! Language is more than getting the point across. It is more deeply expressive than that, more subtle, more useful than the current generation realizes. The word "flibbertigibbet" is delicious to say-- do it right now. It makes your mouth do cool things. But it would cost 20 bucks to text message flibbertigibbit, so why bother learning it in the first place? Because vocabulary is fun, people, and no number of emoticons or .gif files or You Tube postings of boys barfing on each other will ever change that.
Pick up a dictionary. Hell, go to www.dictionary.com and look up random words. Teach yourself something.
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