Twitter and Dickens: The Condensation of Modern English

Twitter and Dickens: The Condensation of Modern English
By Sonnet Xu

One of Dickens’s more popular books, A Tale of Two Cities, is a book most people have heard of, and is a classic in English literature. Beyond just the name, even those with the slightest of knowledge of Dickens most likely know the famous opening line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

The famous 19th century author, who is still well known today, penned this book many many years ago, but it’s story and writing remained engraved in the hearts of many. Characterized by his keen societal observation and commentary, paired with his lengthy (sometimes wordy) descriptions and beautiful prose, Dickens was a talented storyteller and writer.

His artful style of writing is particularly worth noting, particularly with the opening of A Tale of Two Cities, with the pacing and repetition creating a captivating opening. His long (over 100 word) beginning to this novel, along with other lengthy writing pieces even led to a circulating urban myth, that said unlike Dumas’s pay-per-line writing, he was paid per word written (which is in fact not true, he was paid per installment).

However, even with his drawn-out prose, his long, run-on sentences offer clarity and beautiful eloquence, which is not often seen among many writers. Every time I reread one of his novels, his writing flow and delicate phrasing still make a deep impression.

In one of the more recent rereadings of A Tale of Two Cities, the lengthy (almost inconcise) introduction made a stark contrast to what english I often see in my day-to-day interactions. With the rise of social media, particularly twitter, and texting, full, syntactically correct sentences are becoming more and more a dime in a dozen. English language is moving more toward conciseness and overall condensation. Sentences are becoming shorter and choppier. To put this into perspective, the opening sentence to this novel alone would comprise at least three tweets.

This evolution is not necessarily bad or negative, it is simply an interesting phenomenon of modern culture. Although I often personally enjoy this new simplification of english language, as it saves me countless hours during daily communications, it is often hard not to reminisce on when english was more poetic and artful. The average American’s vocabulary has reduced, and though perhaps not as drastic, this change does draw significant parallels with Orwell’s Newspeak, from 1984.

This new (or maybe not that new) movement has sparked discussion in many fields and groups, its outcomes on society are yet to be evident. What do you think of this? What are your thoughts on the overall condensation of modern english?