Many people in the English speaking world are concerned by English online. It usually is not what your high school English teacher would accept.
Should English online follow the rules? I think so. Recently I requested an associate to email to me a list of items from an estate I had given him to sell. I told him I needed the list to take to court. I received the list but it was in what I might call texting shorthand; a series of shortcuts and sound-alike phrases that I didn't think the judge would even be able to read!
Does it matter? I think we may one day find ourselves unable to clearly and concisely communicate with each other if we continue to to use abbreviations and made-up words. Imagine if you are so into the habit of communicating in less than the English you learned in school and you have the occasion to email someone for whom English is a second language. Will that person even be able to comprehend your ""English online?""
Even properly and completely spelled words are beginning to be either misused or substituted for correct words. 'There' and 'their,' for instance have quite different meanings but are incorrectly used interchangeably. Another example that is confusing is the use of 'your' when the writer means 'you are,' which, as a contraction is properly spelled 'you're.'
An especially grating misuse of 'me' and 'I' not only occurs in internet communications but in speech; even the speech of television new anchors, who should know their language better than you or I. (Not me,'I!') Its really quite easy to keep those two references to oneself in order. If she gave it to me, she could not give it to Betty and I, could she? Just take Betty out of the sentence and see how it sounds.
English online is creeping into English anywhere. If we are going to speak English correctly we need to write it correctly, too.
04. August