Power to the Pen

Let your fingers do the walking with a twist!  Literally walk your fingers over your keyboard to give the power of a ‘virtual pen’.  The written word is a powerful tool, it can weald pain and sadness as well as humour and joy.  Thank you two little words when uttered mean the world yet write them down give them substance and the receiver has a permanent record.  Royal Mail has used ‘I saw this and thought of you’ slogan to encourage the British public to put pen to paper , email and the world wide web gives everyone the chance to spread joy through the ‘net’. 

Mobile phones have encouraged everyone to ‘text’ with a whole new language evolving. I am sorry but I cannot join the multitude the written word needs to be punctuated perfectly be it written on paper, word processed or typed into a mobile phone keypad.  People are not only losing the art of conversation they are losing the basic learned process of writing.  We hear the cries of teachers when marking scripts children migrate the ‘text speak’ into their written language, heresy we cry.  This reflects society’s constant clamour of further precious time. A snatched minute here an extra half an hour there rush, rush, rush. Is it any wonder that this urgency has filtered through to the use of written language itself?  Ultimately will our quest for precious extra minutes make the written word illegible?  Shorthand was designed for speed this does not resemble the language it derives from.  Will language itself go the same way?  Answers on a post card, responses welcomed.

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