I am afraid, it will not get better but worse. The beginnings of the butchering of our language was born of the internet and texting on phones and the cost was prohibitive for sending texts back in its early years...thus the advent and ingenuity of kids to shorten their messages using the shortcuts like u n me r 2 slo n ima go now

And... are we expected to WRITE - AGAIN?! Speaking of "lost arts," when is the last time anybody wrote - actually WROTE a long-hand cursive letter, addressed it in cursive, and sent it via snail-mail? I feel the same sadness, Odin, at the dysfunctionality of today's youth, with the brevity of some of the newer social media - hopefully, Twitter will die on the Vine (get it? Vine?) Never mind.
Anyway, I rly liked ur testament 2 the need 4 resurrecting REAL language arts; not just tweets n stuff; SMH.

So many things are Endangered today - truly very sad.

This is quite a vision quest, enriched with your insights!
Blessings,
Christine

I feel your pain. But I've had a revelation. I have probably written more than my contemporaries while being hampered by a hand splint for writing (lettering was easier) and for typing one key at a time. Writing was always a struggle, so I often abbreviated my messages to people when first getting email because of the time it took to type.

For the past 20 years I've been using voice dictation systems. While they still are not perfect, they have gotten to the point where I can now write at the rate of typing about 100 words per minute. As a result, as you may have noticed from my comments, I'm able to write much more to everyone that I interact with, with much more ease.

If my crystal ball is correct, the youth will be going from endless cell phone meaningless conversations and texting to be quiet and private to a much more robust technology in the future. I believe there will soon be implants allowing the direct connection of our minds to others in our universe. At that point, our vocabularies and language will be greatly enhanced like my ability to quickly look up new words on Google and avoid the dictionary altogether.

It's a brave new world and we should embrace it.

Ron