a thoughtful web.
Share good ideas and conversation.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by phloridaman
phloridaman  ·  809 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Without UK influence, EU English will be free to morph into a distinct variety

What about the internet, too? People use the internet and speak freely: there are no governments to "pull" language back to a standard, just human interaction with other humans and their memes. English is usually the starting point.

Language has already started splitting based on the interests of a person. In the past, great unifying languages came, spread, and split along geographic and cultural boundaries. Now more than ever are these boundaries interwoven and complicated.

I have a feeling that the development of our languages will have a different flavour in the post-internet era, just as it changed post-printing-press, post-paper, and surely post-writing as well.

The memes of today are laying the foundations of the communications backbone of tomorrow. First attempts, and sometimes crude, but certainly showcasing the power of this new energy level.

The last generation of media, desperate for power, is clinging to good thoughts, and leaving the new generation to pick from its scraps, then fears new media only because of the composition they gave it.

Let's be aware of how we are shaping this latest layer of our brain and contribute sensibly to its development.