Today's Rant.

I’ve been an avid user of the internet since the days of dial-up, so not much that the internet has to offer surprises me anymore. Or so I thought.

I logged on this morning to find that ‘Twerk’ has made it into the Oxford dictionary.

Yes, twerk.

This may not seem odd to those who used the word, and did the twerking, back when it originated in the early nineties – but to the majority of people watching Miley bounce around, it may seem completely ridiculous. As I sit here writing this post, I take small comfort in the fact that ‘twerking’ is still being underlined by that jagged red line that usually infuriates me so much. Don’t ever change, Spellcheck…and I promise never to Add twerk to Dictionary.

It got me thinking about other words that have had their dictionary debut in the past year or so. I get it, we are now in a digital age and people are using words like selfie, twerk, totes, yolo – but when I Google the word ‘literally’ and get ‘Used to acknowledge that something is not literally true but is used for emphasis or to express strong feeling’ as a definition – shit just got serious.

I think it speaks for us as a generation when words used so informally are being made so mainstream. ‘Retweet’ is another word to have made it into the Oxfod Dictionary of Anything Goes – but what happens when Twitter disappears and something else takes over? 

With online jargon being spread through music, slogans and fashion, I wonder if the English language is just going to be something future kids read about in their weird little electronic robot books. 

I would LITERALLY die. 

Like, literally.

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