*you don't have to go to the site cuz i'm going to use the prime examples in this post.**
some time ago, the twitterverse informed me that the words "retweet" and "sexting" were added to the dictionary. i was quick to retweet. i quote this article, "The Concise Oxford English Dictionary has added 400 words to its dictionary, including retweet, woot, sexting and cyberbullying". 400 new words..alright way to go english language. lets keep on naming things. but the point is that there are so many new things to label. this is the 12th edition of that dictionary. just released. the first edition hit the presses in 1911. the 11th had last been revised in 2009. so we're talkin 400 new words sprouted up in 2 measly years.
i don't really know if that's normal. i put forth a half-assed attempt to compare the original size of the dictionary in 1911 with this most recent version. just judging by the nature of these recent additions, i'm inclined to believe that we have never before seen a time when there was this rate rapid a rate increasing conceptual labels. the words are byproducts. our experiential world is so much larger than ever before. not only has there been an influx of brand new words, our language is also evolving as existing words shift in meaning. the word follower has been defined as "someone who is tracking a particular person, group, etc. on a social networking site" while the meaning of the word friend has also taken on the new dimension of social networking with this addition to the definition, "a contact on a social networking website" (http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/08/century-defining-language/). i'm particularly concerned about the mutation that the word friend has taken on. it doesn't even specify which social network. it's definitely not kosher for me to say that i'm friends with bill gates..or even that mark zuckerburg is my friend. although i would consider them contacts of my socially networked self. there is even a handful..or maybe trashbag full of contacts on facebook that i would never refer to as friends. we need a different word to describe these online relationships. a little out of control...but that's not the point. we sit here facing our screens doing what the internet makes easy.
I am just this fella wearing a hat sitting in the dark thinking things. because the room is dark, there aren't too many products in my field. but there are a few things that catch my eye. obviously this laptop is front and center. i've got the little speakers on either side. my checkbook, fingernail clippers, mouse, headphones, iphone, sunglasses, pens, bottle of wine, and bottle of rum. i don't know much latin, but shot in the dark guess they didn't have words for any of those things other than the last two. and maybe not even rum. these are all just the immediate external artifacts i'm experiencing. not even referring to all of the untold wonders of the internet awaiting me in the 10 tabs i've got pumpin in my chrome browser. where do i sit in all of this..and why am i here writing about it?
let's analyze the self another day. i'm very sleepy. i've decided i'll just keep republishing this till it's done.
**turns out that list sucks.***
***and i probably should have deleted everything pertaining to these asterisks.
