TL:DR

Each year dictionaries publish lists of new words added to the English language as well as words with different connotations that have previously been published. Recently I began hearing of Merriam-Webster’s list of the 840 new words added in September to its dictionary. One of the new entries I came across is the title above: TL:DR. For the uninitiated in this kind of text speak abbreviation becoming common to this generation, this means “too long; didn’t read.”

Unfortunately, this entry (and many others more disturbing) shows the change in our world from actually reading newspaper articles, books, and the Bible to reading nothing longer than a Tweet or a brief rant on Facebook or Instagram (or fill in the blank with your particular social media poison). What these publications lack in quantity of words, the quantity of “posts” compensate for leaving today’s readers with a huge quantity of words that are disturbingly disconnected. Also rather troubling to me, not only as a regular person but also as an English teacher, is that many people only see the feeds of those they “follow” on their social media accounts. In this case, “followers” are inundated with short messages from a select group of people, and depending on whom they are following, they may be inundated with mundane, trivial information or violent rants depending on the day and the mood of the person they are following.

I looked up the word “follower” in several dictionaries and found that the context for being a follower has evolved to reflect our societies obsession with social media. Merriam-Webster has all of the traditional ideas of what a follower is, “one who follows the opinions or teaching of another,” but also includes the newest social meaning of “one who subscribes to a feed especially on social media.” Falling back on my go-to, which is the 1812 Webster’s Dictionary, I found a much different context of a follower in a world devoid of social media and technology. It is much more reliant on the idea of being one devoted to following doctrines and obeying, worshipping, and honoring God. The context is entirely different. We’ve lost the original context of what it means to be a follower.

Recently, as I was studying The Revelation to John in the Bible, I came across the church at Pergamum, which had become so like the world around them that it was difficult to see they were following Christ at all. Modern believers now live in a world so diluted by social media that the word “follower” no longer has the context for Christians that is distinct from the world’s context. Following one on social media has no cost to us but our time (which is another topic altogether), but following Christ means laying down our lives. That’s a huge difference, and our children are not only suffering from lack of quality reading (or any true reading by our definition at all), but they are also learning a new definition of what it means to be a follower that is leading them away from the truth like a pied piper. Here we are, maybe, thinking we are followers of Christ (meaning fans . . . people who watch what others say and do without actually participating) when we should be doers as we are called to be.

I didn’t set out for this to be a rant, but maybe it has become one. Words are valuable. Jesus is called the Word, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. I think being aware of how words are being used in our society is important, especially for those who have young, impressionable children still in their care.

Hopefully, this post was not classified as TL:DR. 

P.S. Here is a disturbingly complete list of new words added to the Oxford English Dictionary . . . since I couldn’t find a compilation of Merriam-Webster’s anywhere:

https://public.oed.com/updates/new-words-list-september-2018/#new_words