Are We Really Communicating?

Ever since I have been writing this blog, Finger Lakes Living, I have been trying to figure out how to increase my readership.  I have tried to make my posts factual and interesting to those who live here in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. I pride myself on bringing to my readers’ things that I have experienced first-hand and supplement my experiences with pictures that I have taken here in this beautiful region of Upstate New York.

My sister- in- lawn who lives in California chided me on a misspelled word that I used in last week’s blog: I used bowel for bowl (I immediately corrected my error).  Now I know full well that there is a difference in the meaning of these two works but of course spell-check will not highlight the difference as both are legitimate words in the dictionary. Like most folks, I was in a hurry. I usually let my writing sit overnight and then I re-read it the next day just to make sure that what I have written makes sense (to me at least).

But then I started to think seriously about my writing. I should have paid more attention to my book “Slaves of Our gods” (click here) that I published last April. In that book I warned people that the electronic revolution which has landed on our shores is really a tsunami wave of destruction that will change our education systems forever. When I published my little book, I paid someone 4 cents a word to correct my English according to the Chicago Manual of Style. I am sure that no one in Smithville, Ohio in the fifties ever heard of the Chicago Manual of Style. Yes, the teaching of English was an important subject at Smithville High School and even Latin was taught so one could understand the origin or roots of the English words. But that was seventy years ago!

Now, with the advent of smart phones, texting, and little-bitty flat key-boards made for children’s fingers, anything goes. The new English goes: How r u? Lmao. Words and sentences have become synonymous with the way we speak: these words are the same: their/there, you’re/ your/ ur, etc. No need to punctuate your sentences – you don’t punctuate your sentences when you speak, do you? My high school English teachers Mrs. Ramseyer and Mrs. Murray would be rotating in their graves if they knew what was happening to the English language today.

So now I am beginning to feel that perhaps the reason my readership hasn’t increased is that most people who read my blog do so on mobile phones and really can’t understand the words that I am writing. After all, I learned English seventy years ago. I have also been puzzled as to why my readers spend only 50 seconds reading my blog. It’s pretty obvious; they aren’t reading but just looking at the pictures!