Teenagers constantly put up with adults putting down their way of communicating. Adults correct their grammar, ban their slang, and make fun of their text speak. However, are these changes in teenagers' vernacular bad, or just the way language should evolve?
Marie Clair, of The Plain English Affair, wrote of teen speak, "Their language is deteriorating. They are lowering the bar. Our language is flying off at all tangents, without the anchor of a solid foundation.” Many adults seem to employ a similar line of thinking, seemingly that teens are violating what the adults view as a "correct" form of communication. Queen's English Society, a British language society, worries that an endless tirade of changes to slang and text speak will cause language to lose all meaning. British broadcaster John Humphrys added that there currently exists in the English language a "bloating," which means an unnecessary adding of filler words.
Despite all this, many forward-thinkers argue that language is meant to evolve. There will always exist critics of new changes to a language who yearn to stick to the old ways. Want proof? In 1785, poet James Beattie wrote, "Our language (I mean the English) is degenerating very fast.”
With this line of thought, it would follow that common language from hundreds of years ago (of course, still English) would be clearer, and easier to read. However, old English is just that: old. We struggle to read it, even with the help of English teachers well-versed in the land of Shakespeare and old writing. Language has evolved since those times, and it will continue to evolve--making it easier for new generations to communicate, as much as older generations will lament the change.
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