big cake or little one?

One of eight newly wed couples in the USA in 2009 met through the Internet. Also according to YouTube video ‘Did you know,’ one in four of us have been at our current job for less than a year and, if Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest in the world at 500 million people. What interested me most in this video though, was that there are 5,000 more words in existence now than when Shakespeare was putting his pen to work.

Our complex method of communication, our language, is one of our defining features as humans. It’s creation and development during the Stone Age was the beginning of our dominant development. Through hundreds of intricate languages we have been able to develop beyond any species present on the planet. But tell me, has our language developed for better or worse?

I wish I lived in Shakespeare’s age. For my writing’s sake that is, nothing else. He had 5,000 fewer words to choose from to create his subtle yet infinitely fundamental pieces of writing. It would have made writing so much easier; less options and variations. Given the large ideas he was trying to convey it’s no wonder he created over 900 of his own words and sayings.

Such creation is continuing in the 21^st century.  However, now words are not just being created but also used in a different manner.  A Shakespeare ‘Tragedy’ usually involved at least a few deaths and acts of incest. Now it can relate to a football players torn hamstring. Being called ‘gay’ is no longer a complement on ones happiness but instead related to being or doing something uncool. Using the word ‘hate’ used to turn heads. Now it’s thrown around haplessly, as if it carries no significant meaning whatsoever.  

LOL, ROFL, O-M-G, FYI and BT-dubs are all seemingly inexplicable acronyms thrown across the coffee tables of Melbourne and England between nearly every teenager. Our language has expanded and yet is being shortened. Our words are losing meaning while our breadth of expression is widening.

The consumer generation is taking hold on English. The exponential enlarging of information on the Internet is due to people’s unbridled license to upload their creative efforts. The number of literate people in Shakespeare’s era was so minor that highly paid jobs existed specifically for those who could simply read and write. Now we exist in an age where I, and millions others like me have our own website. Has this magnification of information, ideas and our language been for better or worse then?

Let’s bake a cake. A chocolate one. It’s only for you and no one else so it needn’t be large. We can buy some of the nicest ingredients and bake a precious little cake. We can enjoy each small bite and appreciate the intricate balance of flavours. Only nowadays, cakes have to be big. Have to contain lots of sugar and decorations. Need an example of the magnification of… everything? Go to the USA.  In fact Americanisation is just down the street. Go check it out.

Back to the cake now. I’m going to bake you a cake. Would you like a big cake that is bland but there is plenty of? Or a small cake that is rich in flavour?

My point in all of this is everything is big now. We have become so accustomed to it that we are desensitised to what it is we are actually consuming. The volume is more of a focus than the flavour. The amount of words we use is now more of a concern than their meaning. The next time you are conversing, think about what you are saying before you say it. Deliberate their meaning. The effect they may have on the person you are speaking with. Most importantly, consider whether what you are saying is what you really want to say. Do you really ‘hate’ your parents? Do you actually think he’s ‘gay’?

Has our language developed for better or worse? It’s developed and that’s the grey area. The meanings of words have changed. Their origin and hence first meaning hasn’t though.

I’d choose a small rich cake any day.

(Photo: 'The Heavens,'  Gothic Quarter, Barcelona, October 2010. Caelum is a Latin word meaning the heavens or sculptors chisel)