I’m lazy. I admit it. Instead of schlepping to the gym, I convince myself that I will forgo sweating for an hour or two so that I can finally clean my home or accomplish some equally noble deed…and ultimately end up being mesmerized by whatever kitschy program happens to be on the tele when I press the power button.
Couch Potato
However, when it comes to words – verbose doesn’t even begin to describe me. I cannot tell a joke without a 5 minute lead-up; it takes restraint for me to compose an e-mail in less than 1,000 words; and it is difficult for me to limit this post to ~ 250 words. So I find it intriguing that whilst I love to expound and express…the trend is to contract and summarize to the point where superfluous definitions were created for what basically amounts to written and verbal laziness:
Haplography - Written Laziness; Linguistics
Haplology - Verbal Laziness; Phonology
With the advent of texting, BlackBerries, mobile phones (conveniences that I ADORE) – we are provided a unique opportunity to communicate faster…but do we really communicate more? With every contraction used, every syllable removed (probably vs. prolly), etc. are we ultimately taking a first-row seat to the decline of language? In a thousand years, will communication be so advanced / degraded that simple caveman-like grunts will be taken as meaningful statements?
Cavemen
Neanderthals
Maybe we should learn a lesson from the H.G. Wells book ‘The Time Machine’, where the protagonist lead invents a time travel contraption that advances him to the year 802,701 A.D. and he discovers the society of the future is simple (READ: stupid, naïve, ignorant…Merriam Webster told me so).
The Time Machine
Idiocracy - Film Based Loosely on 'The Time Machine'
Synonyms of 'Simple'
