Facebook Hope for Civilization

Did you read the article in the Muskogee Phoenix today entitled Facebook fixes grammar (Monday, June 30, 2007)? The story came over the AP wire (click on highlighted link to read AP story) and has made a small ripple in the world that could have major literacy impact for future generations of text messagers and Facebook savvy young people everywhere.

For a couple of years now educators have been a voice crying in the desert about the spelling and grammar ability of today's teens, undercut by the informal writing used in text messaging and other digital communication. Shortcut slang spelling and grammar have debilitated many teens' ability or willingness to use grammatically correct English, a very bad habit that quickly takes over like kudzu. It has even been theorized that writing a term paper in text messaging could be the only way to reach some teens.

But, now Facebook itself is coming to the rescue of teen communication woes by instituting, of all things, grammar rules! The major obstacle in Facebook's opinion is the use of "their" for the singular he/she, a rule many of us abuse in our colloquial speaking. Evidently, as Facebook expands out to other languages, the plural forms must agree with the gender of the speaker, making "their" a non-option.

Well, let's face it, other languages are more specific than English, but this is a major coup for civilization at large. It may mean that literacy can be saved, that one's Turabian guide to grammar is not defunct, and that the MLA or APA rules for research paper documentation will survive the digital age after all. It means that order will prevail over chaos.

This Facebook realization that pronouns and nouns must agree in gender signals hope for American literacy. It lends veracity to high school English teachers everywhere who can now say to those teens wondering how or why they would ever have to know subject/verb agreement, "Because you even have to use it on Facebook, that's why." Now that's the ultimate connection between learning and relevancy. Way to go, Facebook.