Communication Let Me Down

'Let me assure you' I said with some irritation to the young girl on the telephone, 'I'm really not interested in the slightest'

'Okay' she replied far too cheerily for my liking, 'No worries'.

No worries? Why not try a simple 'that's okay, sorry to have troubled you', or 'that's no problem at all, sir, thank you for your time'? It's one of the admittedly worrying increasing number of examples of day to day life that irks me no end. The English language used to be something that commanded respect, something that set the standard for knowledge and making something out of life. Now, like so many other aspects of life in this country, the English language has been hijacked with an annoying habit of turning nouns into verbs, such as prioritise and incentivise. There are many other examples. Such as adding 'I guess' at the end of a sentence.

'It looks like rain. You'll need your brolly, I guess...' Damn it!

Then there's the text language which has spread like some grammatical plague in the last fifteen years or so. The abbreviated method of texting is bad enough but now it's spreading into every day language. LOL, M8 - which I always thought was the motorway linking Edinburgh and Glasgow but now, apparently, means 'friend' - 2nite, b4, l8tr....by George it's almost a new language.

I remember not so long ago when people would actually make the effort to write letters. Yes, write, with a pen. Starting the letter Dear Mr or Dear Mrs (until political correctness demanded not Mrs but Ms) or using a first name. And ending the letter with either Yours faithfully or Yours sincerely. The anticipation of receiving a letter was half the excitement. Of course Royal Mail could take several days to deliver said letter which was always a drawback. Now, the informality of e-mails and text messages sees correspondence begin with 'Hi' or 'Hey' and messages are instant. No more waiting anxiously to see if the cigarette puffing, bedraggled postie can be bothered to deliver your expectant item of mail. E-mails and texts are immediate.

I'm well aware of the irony of me blogging about modern communication. Perhaps I'm not alone in hankering after a more simple time when people made a considerable effort to communicate rather than just press a button or two. Or perhaps I am.

Instant communication and the 'modernisation' of the English language is the way of the world in the 21st century - I guess....