Bad language.

Time was, a bar of soap and a potty mouth were a match made in heaven. Profanity was not tolerated in any form and children snickered if Dad let loose an occasional rant after a night at the pub. Changes in attitude to a Victorian predilection for non descriptive language and pay TV, made sure four letter words became the norm and schoolyards changed forever. What was once considered bad language from the likes of Lenny Bruce became part of the lexicon, today being replaced by what many consider bad language changed via technology, changed by structure for a need to say something in limited space and changed by a verbosity never seen before in the annuals of literature.

With so much choice for language to be displayed via the access granted by the Internet, it's understandable the rush to say something can sometimes over power the need to say it properly or correctly, according to your old English teacher. To that end we are seeing polar opposite views, around the structure and future of our language as influenced by the Internet.

Prescriptives are heralding the demise of language, agonising over the negative influence of electronic communication and the dumbing down of Shakespeare and literary traditions. Abbreviations, acronyms, net slang, flaming and assorted ambiguity found in the writings of bloggers, the smart phone children and anyone in a rush, cause consternation equivalent to the breaking up of the Beatles. War and Peace and its ilk, tend to be the benchmark, with anything under a hundred thousand words too short, with not enough content or the capacity to articulate the message and meaning.

Descriptivists counter the above argument alleging the Internet gives scope to a wider expression of language, constantly changing linguistic convention and finally reading the way we talk. They talk about Internet slang and its ability to join cultures, to globalise language and make it accessible to all. They talk about no language being bad, that it should never be shackled by the past and that online language will have greater influence offline than anything Shakespeare wrote.

The etiquette guides and linguistic appropriateness of the past is being shattered by time restrictions, why write a manifesto if I can relay the message via a Tweet, by smart phones, who really wants to long hand anything nowadays on a minute keyboard and finally subculture, where language is being redefined by a new generation. The same reason we don't talk like Shakespeare anymore is the same reason we don't talk like we did before all this technology came along. Adaptability of language shows the flexibility in intelligence and the capacity to change with the change.

So the next time your nephew sends you a 140 character greeting card via his smart phone or the next time you learn a new word made up of numbers and letters, don't get caught up in the punctuation but rather the thought behind the message. For the long hand and the short of it, finds enough room for all. The Internet will never run out of space for those wanting to say a lot in their own sweet time, in their own sweet language and it will provide the forums and platforms for those in a hurry to say it now with a mangled mash up that would have Shakespeare rolling in his grave.