The Devolution of the English Language

I'm afraid that we are fast approaching a society akin to that in the brilliant Mike Judge film Idiocracy. If you haven't seen it, it's worth a watch or two.
The premise of the movie is that our civilization has declined to the point of complete economic, social, and cultural ruin because TV and instant gratification have eclipsed books and any sort of yearning for knowledge. The movie is brilliant, but at times it hits a little close to home. Every time I watch it, I notice little signs in the real world around me that hint to a future not unlike that of the movie. For instance, the new Home Depot slogan 'More Saving. More doing.'. Wow. Really? I'm all for a short, snappy tag line, but this is ridiculous. I mean, this is a multi-billion dollar company and they hire an ad executive with grammar that would make Flava Flav blush.

Or consider the billboards I saw for Emerus Emergency Room on Highway 380 in Denton: the first one read 'Emerus' and the second one read 'Don't know Emerus? Better find out before an emergency'. I don't know about you, but I feel like I fell off a cliff with that second one. Before an emergency what? These are the people we are trusting with our lives?

While I was driving on that same highway, I pulled up behind a white Toyota at a stoplight proudly displaying a large, delightfully colorful sticker across the back window. It said 'Rock Wit It'. Oy.
I wonder what that person's resume looked like.

These vignettes are only a few examples of the current state of the English language. Many finger TV, texting, and the internet as the culprits behind this degradation. Others list the many reasons we are all too busy chasing cheese in the American rat race to be bothered by correct punctuation or spelling. I disagree: I think we are just getting lazy. I admit, writing an actual letter seems a lot more tedious and unnecessary than writing an email. Remember those long, heartfelt letters that your grandparents wrote to one another in beautiful, flowing script and prose? Those days are dead and gone. But just because the methods of communication have changed doesn't mean that the content of that communication has to suffer. David Duchovny's character on the show Californication says it best in the following clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGz6NdLBF2Y


I happened to catch the band Devo on The Colbert Report, and both members of the group were quick to inform Mr. Colbert that our culture is, in fact, devolving. Never one to agree with his guests, Stephen Colbert replied "I don't believe in devolution, only intelligent decline."