by Jonathan Lavigne
Editor-in-Chief

I read a lot of blogs.

I try to check my friend’s page on LiveJournal almost everyday, and I subscribe to the blogs of most of my friends on MySpace. I find it amusing to see what people are doing or thinking.

Often, it will allow me to hear about stuff that we might not discuss in real life, or then again, allow us to elaborate on a certain post. Blogging has become a broad spectrum way of communicating, gone are the days of having to re-tell the same amusing little anecdote over and over again. Blog it, and technically, every one of your closest friends should know. Simple.

I know I am not the best typist, I type at a modest rate, and I am okay with that. My grammar is poor in most cases, but I can easily chalk that up to being born, raised, and educated in French (not that my grammar in French is really flawless either).

Yet a recent trend has me feeling down, and the phenomena has only grown more popular as of late.

The trend in question has been dubbed webonics. Some see it as a natural progression of language, holding the same logical pattern as evolution. Growing from our English ancestral roots in Britain, MIDNIGHT evolved into MIDNITE, HUMOUR evolved into HUMOR. Language is in constant flux and is recreated at a constant rate. New technological demands, and scientific advances create the need for newer words. For example, look in a dictionary from 15 years ago, and it’s doubtful you will find mention of a terabyte. Right now even my spell check is rejecting the word.

Another growing trend is the use of acronyms to convey a message, BRB, WTF, OMG, STFU and LOL have become so used in common language that to not use them is a waste of time. Expect them to join, and clutter a new-edition dictionary near you soon.

After accepting the need of certain language to be adapted to newer trends, why are we dumbing ourselves down? Some will blame it on pure and simple laziness. “Hw r u?” is a lot faster to type than “How are you?” for example. Other commonplace webonic abbreviations are: lyk (like), wud (would), ur (your, you’re) and cuz (because).

But the one that sickens me the most is how a common typo has made its way into the blogosphere (another new word). I give you: “TEH“. The typo has been used so often that our eyes are almost used to seeing it.

In the age of typing rapidly while chatting online, we’re all getting a little bit more fluent in typonese (more fun new words!), and we just say nothing. What bothers me about “teh” in particular is that people have started using it intentionally because it makes them look cool.

Intentional typos do not make you look cool in any shape way or form. A typo is a mistake, to do so intentionally is a sign of idiocy.

It is understandable and logical that language should evolve, letting it deteriorate on the other hand, totally fubar.