Words, Words, Words.
—Hamlet

Oftentimes, communication becomes a laborious task. Many of us constantly blasting Tweets, punching out emails, replying to texts, and answering phone calls. Sometimes we don’t know how to say what we’re feeling, and other times we can predict exactly how someone will reply when asked, “So, how’s it going?” “Oh, you know, pretty good.” It seems we find communication boring, as if it were some chore like doing the laundry. Other times, it presents us with challenges so great we don’t know how to face them. Whatever we might feel about communicating, it’s almost certain that we almost always take it for granted. Take words themselves, for example. Words — the basic, yet complex building blocks of language — are the tools we use to give our thoughts and experiences meaning. The ancient Hebrews went as far as to say that life and death were in the power of words.

So, it only makes sense that, as mankind experiences new things, he will craft new words to give his experience meaning. With the introduction of new, incredible technologies into our every-day lives, which undoubtedly change the way we experience life, we have begun to create new words to describe and share our experiences. Although scholars are undoubtedly correct in their assertion that text message, IM, and email communiques affect the way we interact in so-called “real life,” adding new words and expressions to our vocabularies, this is nothing new under the sun. For instance, before World War II, one would have been hard pressed to find the word “genocide” used to describe the systematic slaughter of a people group. But, after humanity experienced the Holocaust, we drew upon that and began using a new word to describe our experience. In a similar manner, the introduction of new technology has demanded that we continue coming up with new ways of describing our experiences.