By Mark W. Danielson
WTF? KFC? LOL!
That’s a teen’s description of what they’re having for dinner, sent via
Twitter. To a cyber-friend, it’s all
they needed to know in nine characters.
And we wonder why we have generational communication issues.
For those of us who grew up prior to any cell phones (or a
lot of other techno-inventions), it’s hard to imagine how the English language
has degraded into selected letters and symbols.
Having said that, it’s unlikely we will ever return to long drawn-out verbiage
we’ve seen in classic literature. Simply
put, today’s readers don’t make the time or have the patience for it.
As an airline captain, I can tell with great accuracy the
age group of my first officers by their communicative skills. Bear in mind that I am dealing exclusively
with college graduates who have spent years perfecting their professional skills
as pilots. Even so, there is a marked difference
between those who are a generation or two below me in how they communicate and
also react to constructive criticism.
A recent Bones
episode centered on brutal honesty. While
watching, I couldn’t help thinking how well agents, editors, and publishing
companies fall into the brutally honest category. “No” is not an abbreviation – it simply
means, no. “No thank you” may be a more
polite version, but it doesn’t soften a rejection. Most authors handle this well because they
are thick-skinned, but see what happens when you tell a twenty-year old no. More likely, you will hear a trail of excuses
spilled in brief sentences because they aren’t used to communicating with their
voices.
But rather than blame our younger generations, it’s
important to understand that we made them this way by creating all of these
gadgets, and now that every kid has his or her hands on a techno device, they
speak in simple terms because it’s easier to type a few characters than
communicate with a live person. If you
are writing about younger people, it is important to understand this because
their dialogue will sound completely different from your own. Rather than type out a sentence using a few
characters, it may be better to describe the scene and use minimal
dialogue. When writing, it is always
important to understand and appreciate your character’s frame of
reference. After all, that is one thing we
cannot change.
