(D)evolution of Words?

LOL! OMG!! I ♥ U!!
You might find such a phrase in a text from one tween to another. As of earlier this month though, you’ll also find these initialisms in the Oxford English Dictionary Online.

In addition to “LOL” (laugh out loud), “OMG” (Oh my God), other initialisms include “IMHO” (in my humble opinion), “TMI” (too much information), and “BFF” (best friend forever).

“♥” also makes an appearance—as a verb, as heart v. As in, I heart drinking chocolate. Or I heart sunny days when I can go on picnics with other people I heart.

While I agree that these “words” have become a large part of modern culture, especially online or through texting, I was somewhat disturbed when I found out about this. I realize, of course that language is ever changing based on time, context, and area, this seemed to me to be moving backwards rather than forwards. These are phrases I used as a middle schooler, when I was lazy and thought that I was cool. I have nothing against the phrases itself, or the people who use them, but to think they they are in the dictionary, that they actually have meaning discomforts me. I think I may just be too much of a traditionalist; after all, if we’re changing our language has to change with us too, right? I guess it’s just that I never really considered them “real words” because I always used them for fun and to joke around.

Either way though, it’s still interesting to see how these initialisms have been modified and have become so popular that they’ve come to be included in the dictionary—sixty years ago, “LOL” meant little old lady! Hopefully kids growing up today will be able to determine the appropriate mediums to use these new words in though—I can only imagine a teacher’s reaction to a book report: “OMG I really liked this book”

Anyway, I gtg—this is definitely going to make Scrabble easier!

Asians in the Library: A Rant

By now I’m sure some of you have heard of the “Asians in the library” rant by UCLA student, Alexandra Wallace. In just under 3 minutes, Alexandra manages to lump millions of Asians into a mass of defenseless, rude, unassimilated and poorly brought up people. If you haven’t seen the video, she complains that “all the asians” talk on the phone in the library, bring their family members over all the time, and and are all-around ill mannered. In quite apparent frustration, she attempts to remind them, “if you’re going to go to UCLA, use American manners.” She relegates every Asian language to three words: “Chingchong, linglong tingtong,” and then goes on to describe herself as a nice, polite, American girl who always asks the Asians in the library to be quiet.

You’ve also probably heard about the recent earthquake followed by a tsunami in Japan--causing indescribable damage, and killing almost 10,00 people so far, with another 16,000 missing. This girl brushes the natural disaster off as the “tsunami thing,” and saying that though she knows it sounds horrible, people shouldn’t be in the library checking on their families anyways--they should go outside and do it.

This is a prime example of pathos gone wrong. Perhaps this girl meant to get--support? sympathy? for her tribulations.Though her video did elicit passion, it was one filled with largely outrage and fury. Like the general public, I wasn’t able to identify with her at all but instead felt sickened by her lack of education and compassion, particularly about her flippant comment about the tsunami in Japan. Coupled with weak logos (are we really to believe every single Asian talks on the phone in the library and no one else does?) and nonexistent ethos (its hard to be persuaded by someone peppering their argument with “like,” and for me, it was hard to even find her character likeable), this video was an overall rhetorical failure.

On a semi-unrelated note, there has been, obviously, a huge, negative response to this girls video; hateful comments and parody videos have sprung up everywhere, and Alexandra has purportedly received death threats. As an assimilated American with Asian heritage, this video was especially provoking for me. Though the video obviously disgusted me, it made me just as sad to see comments such as “she’s blonde...she doesn’t know any better” or “dumb blondes don’t go to the library,” with these people realizing that though she made horrible stereotypes, they are, by criticizing her like this, furthering others.

Revisiting the Past

“friday was a half day =]

we went out for lunch. like

me lea cason molly kimmy. and other people

and then we just like walked around.

(i saw the pole i walked into last time =])

they all made fun of me though. haha lol

and then. i went to leas. and saw her kittens

and guess what.

THEYRE SO CUTEEE =]

like. tiny. and orange. i like the all orange one the best.

because. they were like. really cute =]”

This was just one of the incredibly well thought out and intellectually stimulating blog posts I wrote when I was 14. Over break, I revisited my old blog wayyy back from middle school and…

It made me kind of like, shrivel up in embarrassment. Like. For real.

Rereading what I wrote as a middle schooler definitely opened my eyes to how my rhetoric has (obviously) changed just in 4 years. I just can’t take past Rayna seriously with all her “likes” and random sentence fragments, and walking into poles (at least this hasn't changed). At the time though,  I guess I thought I was just so super cool or something (I guess I can at least be thankful there wasn’t any tYpinG liK3 tHisS). It makes me wonder how our rhetoric naturally just changes like that; certainly, no one sat me down and told me, “Rayna, talking like that does not make you cooler, smarter, or more grown up. Stop it,” though I wish they did. Is it learning more in school? Reading more? Following our older siblings examples? Or just plain growing up?

Maybe it’s just a combination of all these things, and I’m willing to bet it doesn’t just end at 18. Maybe in 50 years 68 year old me will be reading this post and cringing in embarrassment over past me once again.

Or maybe not, because this time I think I’ve really nailed it; I’m just so super cool now.

Ethos failure

“Want to steal a house? It’s completely legal!”

With the deluge of spam email I regularly get, I often guide my mouse to “delete forever” without a second though. Today though, before I could, this one particular message jumped out and caught my eye. The more I think about it, the more ridiculous it becomes; according to Merriam Webster, “steal” is defined as “to take the property of another wrongfully and especially as a habitual or regular practice.” Somehow, legal stealing just doesn’t make sense to me. Sure, the different wording caught my attention, which is surely the first goal of rhetors, but after trying and failing at figuring out exactly what they were trying to say by this, I wouldn’t have wanted to give these people my own name, let alone my address and credit card information! This completely ruined any semblance for ethos the emailers of this junk had. In addition, the ad featured no pictures or any other description; just a simple, undecipherable link. As we’ve been talking in class about how images can greatly enhance an ad or argument, this showed to me how the lack of images can completely result in failure.

This makes me think about all the other strange ads and billboards that I’ve seen that have made me think, What were they thinking?! 

case in point: would you trust your love life with this company?