The original version of spell check was created by William J. Tobin in 1978. He invented it for a company called Software Concepts, Inc. and in doing so, revolutionized typing, which was more or less a revolutionary concept to begin with. According to recent statistics, in the US, 76% of the population are computer OWNERS, not just users. In todays society, conjested with unimagineable technologies barely dreamed of in 1978, i believe we've reached an impass. Those on one side, the side forever taken by the human race, include Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte, Robertson Davies, and of course, William J. Tobin. On the other side, we find ourselves in the faces of such people as Bill Gates, Tony Faddel and Steve Jobs. On one side we hold tight the classical English literature that guided our nations through war, famine, draught, genocide, tragedy, victory! The poems, novels, biographies that, while they may have been written decades prior, still hold truth and value, and promise! On the other side... Well, they have cell phones.
Maybe I'm being dramatic. That's a silly statement, i know I'm being dramatic, because I'm always dramatic, but I'm very fired up about this! I fully believe that if Charles Dickens ever read some of the posts i find on my News Feed, he'd roll over in his grave. What have we come to? It seems that the easier attaining information, sharing information, and being lazy becomes, the less interested we are in the foundational English that our society thrived from for centuries. To be literate is to be enriched, but our society has redefined literate, and it no longer equates to enrichment, but in fact, quite the opposite. It now equates to text messages and Billboards, which in turn equates to lower functional literacy rates and lower educational standards. It, ultimately, will redifine success in the business world, the literary world, and the general public. Now, is that really what you want?
In the past summer, I've carved out the time to read a few novels, none of which i didn't like. I read The Joy Luck Club, The Kite Runner, Rachel's Tear (The Spiritual Journey of A Columbine Martyr), Gone With The Wind, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Five novels in two months is not really an accomplishment, but it's certainly not something to scoff at, either. While it might sound a little unrealistic, i read these books in the midst of a four season Scrubs marathon, a ten season Friends marathon, moderately intense church comittments, and a part time job. Oh, and there's a two year old in my house. You don't need to cut out every other aspect of your life to make a little time for a book.
So, i challenge you, blog reader, facebook user, texter. Read a book. Any book, just one, more if you'd like. Read a book and absorb everything you can from it. Enjoy the grammar and the propriety. Welcome the foreign world and the foreign characters, and love every second of it. Then, translate this book to your life. The next time you go to post a new status on Facebook, proof read it. Or, if spelling isn't your thing, there's this really neat button on your keyboard called a Shift button, which allows you to access entirely new realms of punctuation outside of a period and comma, imagine!
Bottom line, we truly have reached an impass here. Either we learn to entwine modern technology and literary theology, or we don't, but think of what we lose if we don't make the effort; Is centuries of progress really outweighed by the tiny piece of plastic that your friends live in?
Blessings,
Mads
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