A recent piece from BBC news asserts that the Internet has changed language. True enough.
The verb “google” didn’t exist when I was growing up. We may have kept diaries or journals but never blogged. And only birds tweeted.
It’s fun to see how necessity changes language and wonder about what’s next. Just think about words were invented in 20th century — cheeseburger, compact disc, A-bomb, X-rated — all of which we can find out more about on the Internet.
But often the older formats remain the better choice.
Maybe it’s time to introduce digital natives to books again. That’s what Lane Smith does with good-natured and laugh out loud humor in It’s A Book (Roaring Brook). Interestingly, Smith uses the same stuff of the Internet — words and pictures.
The main characters — a mouse, a monkey, and a jackass — begin their interaction on the title page which continues till the very satisfying end. Even though THIS thing doesn’t tweet, blog, or text, it does give us hours and hours of entertainment. After all, it’s a book!