These days it is not very uncommon to hear phrases like Twitter will change the world, or that Facebook will guide the way businesses deal with their customers, or something on similar lines. While it is undeniable that Internet is changing the world as we know it, yet by itself Internet can’t do much.

Without the offline world, the online world simply cannot exist.

While the above concept may sound too simple to be missed, but that is exactly what seems to be happening these days. The apple was falling from the apple tree for centuries, but it took a Newton to tell the world that it was gravitation that was making the apple fall. While I do not claim to have made a discovery of Newtonian proportion, I must say something that is so simple that it is often ignored.

The social networking sites are all the rage these days. The popularity of Twitter can be gauged by the fact that hardly a day goes by when we don’t see Twitter in the news. Some might say that the reason for the success of Twitter is that it facilitates interaction between people. But, let us face it – Twitter started becoming popular only when celebrities began to endorse it. Be it Britney Spears, Barack Obama, Gul Panag or, the latest to jump on the bandwagon, Sachin Tendulkar – every time a celebrity joins Twitter, Twitter following increases manifold.

In spite of all the celebrity bashing that many Twitter users go in for, it remains a fact that most celebrities have followers that run into thousands, if not lakhs. What does this say about Twitter, and Twitter users or, for that matter, about any social networking site?

While it is true that many people join these sites to stay in touch with friends and family, it is equally true that a large number of people join these sites to use them as a marketing tool, or to have a shot at their fifteen minutes of fame.

Hearing stories about how people have successfully used social networking, or online marketing, to set up a successful business creates an illusion that anyone can do it, and so, everyone tries to do it.

But, a fact that is often forgotten is that, barring a few exceptions, it is not possible to set up a business or achieve success solely through your work in the virtual world. If you look at the profiles of most people who have made it the online world, it is evident that most of these people are good at what they do in the real world. They merely extended their talents to the online world.

Coming back to the example of  Twitter again, the people who have the highest number of followers are those who are successful at what they do in real life.

It will do all of us a world of good, and save us from a lot of disappointments later, if we remember that the virtual world is at best, an aid to the real world, and not its replacement. Would you agree?

Heya, wassup? Gimme a cal tomo, wanna tak abt dat wrk. Ppl r askng abt u hre.

Most people from my father’s generation won’t understand what these words, looking very similar to English, mean. These words simply didn’t exist in their time. It is the recent communication revolution that has given birth to this new language, which has become the mother tongue of the present generation.

The advent of the internet and the mobile has increased the pace of communication, and has also made communication easier. The news about a plane crash, or an earthquake, in any part of the world spreads all across the world in a matter of a few minutes. Log in to Twitter and you are instantly apprised of what the world is talking about. Communication with our near and dear ones, who are now spread all over the world, has been facilitated by these new gadgets.

Though connecting with friends and family has become trouble-free, the language used in this easy form of communication is not the finest we use. Because these are instant ways of communicating, the language used is also expected to be “instant”. Who wants to write 100 fine English words, when 30 typographic words can do the job just as well?

Did I hear someone say grammar? Well, that goes out of the window too. Earlier the point was to use as few words as possible to get the message across. Now, the thumb rule is: use as few characters as possible. In fact, some upcoming sites, like Twitter, give you only so much character space to get your message across. Quite naturally then grammar and good quality word usage take a back seat, and your creativity– or lack of it- takes the driver’s seat.

English, by its very nature, is an amusing language and its intricacies have always confounded the simple-minded. It is hard to explain a few things like, the difference in the pronunciation of put and but; the silent ‘p’ in pneumonia or the silent ‘k’ in knife. With the language already being so confusing, the new online language is bound to baffle a lot of people. People trying to learn English are bound to be misled and ultimately end up using the language incorrectly.

Children and youngsters still at the school level, who are trying to get a grasp on the language can, and do, get easily affected by this simple form of English. They simply end up believing that the new form is the correct form.

Though brevity has been the soul of wit since long, yet not every word can be shortened in proper English. Online communication, however, gives you this power, which, it can be argued, contributes to its becoming the most powerful mode of communication today. Anything that provides fast and instant results is a hit with the young crowd and so, naturally, is this form of communication even if it comes at a high cost to the English language.

When times change, so does the language. Shakespeare’s English, or Chaucer’s for that matter, is a nightmare for students of English Literature today. The language used by D.H. Lawrence, and R.K. Narayanan differed greatly from the one used by Amitav Ghose today. But, they all contained the essence of the language, applied to the times these authors lived in.

Just like 20-20 can’t match test cricket, similarly this new SMS lingo cnt match English language. Can it?