As a writing teacher, as an English speaker, and frankly, as a human being, I have a fair amount of concern about the latest in a long line of methods for ruining language. Have you seen this new commercial?
I'm no historian of linguistics, but it seems like the first human-developed pictographs were in Mesopotamia around 3500 BC. Humans then moved toward an early alphabetic form somewhere around 1200 BC or so. A recognizable form of English (for us today) wasn't common until nearly 1400 AD. So we've only been using our current form of written English for about 600 years. It has obviously gone through numerous revisions, and as with most forms of evolution, increasingly toward a better and more clear iteration.
However, with the prevalence of emojis and now Apple's "Stickers," it appears as if we are beginning to regress toward the language of our ancient ancestors. This seems ironic as Apple constantly (and annoyingly) reminds us how innovative they are and of their desire to push human culture forward. But this smartphone app seems like an enormous leap backward. As someone who reads thousands of pages of text every year written by young people, I can tell you that, despite 600 years of English that has come before them, they struggle with communicating in basic sentences. We are now making it even easier for them to avoid expressing themselves clearly using words--you know, like people. Our most defining characteristic that distinguishes us from other species, our ability to use language, is being reduced to the black mirror equivalent of clumsy indents on clay tablets. Congrats, Apple--you're making our young people as intelligent as cave dwellers.
However, with the prevalence of emojis and now Apple's "Stickers," it appears as if we are beginning to regress toward the language of our ancient ancestors. This seems ironic as Apple constantly (and annoyingly) reminds us how innovative they are and of their desire to push human culture forward. But this smartphone app seems like an enormous leap backward. As someone who reads thousands of pages of text every year written by young people, I can tell you that, despite 600 years of English that has come before them, they struggle with communicating in basic sentences. We are now making it even easier for them to avoid expressing themselves clearly using words--you know, like people. Our most defining characteristic that distinguishes us from other species, our ability to use language, is being reduced to the black mirror equivalent of clumsy indents on clay tablets. Congrats, Apple--you're making our young people as intelligent as cave dwellers.