Speak English! I don't know the meaning of half those long words, and I don't believe you do either!

R.O.F.L.M.B.A.O


In the advent of the new technological era, our manner of communication has taken a drastic step. Backward. The perils of this new digitalised age have been argued and discussed in depth from many different viewpoints. The parents are worried about internet predators, the teachers are worried about a lack of concentration and some more radical groups are convinced that the devil has finally found the easiest way to access us. I, on the other hand am left wondering where all the words have gone?

A few weeks back, I was gathered around the T.V with my brothers (aged 16 and 14), watching what they both claimed to be “the best movie of all time”, or at least that’s what I thought we doing. Turns out, I was watching “the best movie of all time” while they flitted in- between the flickering lights on the screen and the blue lights on their phone. I spent half the time listening to the incessant clicking of their phone keys and the rest of it explaining what had just happened in the movie to them. Needless to say, I was unimpressed and this concerned me. Am I becoming a technological prude?

I recall a friend of mine lamenting about the ‘iPod kids’ as she called them. Her argument was that IPods convert people into anti-social mimes. No casual greetings when you bump into someone in the corridor (we just pretend to be completely engrossed in our music), no fleeting glances exchanged across the room (no need to meet someone new, I’ve got like, 500 friends on Facebook dude), and our idea of politeness is pulling one earpiece out so you can half-hear when someone is talking.

Perhaps the problem is that technology advanced and developed faster than our respect and politeness levels did, so yes, I can reach out to three hundred people with the click of a button but do I really have anything to say? We tweet about what we had for breakfast or ‘oh no, I just deleted my favourite playlist by mistake’. You would think that, after years of fighting for independence and freedom, we would use our freedom of speech a little more wisely.



Today, it will be exactly twenty years to the day since Nelson Mandela was released from Robben Island, and what do the Status Updates say? Well, there’s a U.J versus WITS lingerie party, and a few early Valentines’ messages. No word on Madiba though. It seems our liberties are lost on us. We cannot even muster up the energy to comment on mundane inanities our ‘friends’ bombard us with ( mstly in th wrst spling in da world!!!). We L.O.L (laugh out loud) where we used to laugh heads off, I.D.C (in da car-an abbreviation of an abbreviation) when we’re on our way and T.M.S (tell me something) when trying to get to know people better.

My brothers however, were quick to out me that even the most respected and ‘pure’ mediums have embraced the technological upswing. CNN and BBC now have blogs and you can catch your Sunday morning service from the warmth of your bed. So maybe I’m not a technological puritan, maybe I’m getting too old, they hint at me. Me? Old? L.M.B.A.O.