Last night, my grandmother retweeted a little quip from The Late Show w/ David Letterman’s executive producer Eric Stangle. “LOL, OMG & FYI added to Oxford English Dictionary. Do people who write LOL, OMG & FYI even use dictionaries?” Naturally, I had to reply. “yes. Just because they’re new words doesn’t mean they’re any less of words. They’re just new. That’s the point.” It seems I have more to say, however.
First of all, I’d just like to extend my congratulations to LOL, OMG, and FYI. I always think it’s cool when internet language is recognized by society as valid. Remember when “google” made it into the dictionary? Most exciting day of my life.
But second, back to Mr. Stangel. His tweet very concisely integrates both old media’s condescension towards the internet and old literature’s arrogance towards new literature. And I have but one attack I’d like to make against both of these views.
Stop being an idiot. Seriously. Every word in the dictionary was new at some point. That doesn’t make those newest words any more or less “real” or “legitimate”. It just makes them new. Like I said in my tweet, that’s the point. Language is the combination of letters to communicate. Whether you accept it or not, LOL is a three letter word that conveys humor or amusement. Just because it’s a different way of saying “haha” or “giggle” (both of which I’m sure you have objections to as well) doesn’t mean it isn’t communicating its purpose. I use LOL a lot, both in notating books I’m reading for class to mark passages that amuse me and in blog posts where I’d like to point out the irony or absurdity of a statement. I don’t use it because I’m somehow inferior to you and your old media friends, I use it because it’s the most succinct way for me to get my point across. The most succinct way for me to communicate the idea I had in mind.
And just so you know, I didn’t have to whip out my thesaurus (I have three) to use the word “succinct”.
Another thing, more specifically on your dictionary dig. In my reply to you, I claimed that yes, we (at least some of us) do use the dictionary, but I fear this will become another point of contention, so let me dispel some possible concerns right away.
When you say “use the dictionary”, I’m going to have to assume, based on the tone of your tweet, that you meant a physical dictionary. I’m not ashamed to say that, in that case, no, I don’t use a dictionary. But I also don’t drive a horse-and-buggy, because it’s just not efficient. I have a variety of online dictionary sources that I cross-apply when deciphering word use, and that doesn’t make me any less of a logophile. It just means that when I want a word, I can find it much easier, no matter where I am, and I don’t have to waste time flipping through a pocket dictionary that gets out of date at the end of every year.
Just because I don’t do things your way doesn’t mean I’m doing them wrong. What’s the point of innovation if you sneer at it? I see you’re using Twitter. Isn’t it supposed to be the death of language as we know it, or some drivel like that? I have news for you, Mr. Stangel. The world changes, and with it, so does language. That’s the inevitability of progress, and it’s neither good or bad. It’s just… different.
WTF, Eric Stangel. W.T.F.
Luv&kises<3,
Bri
