Once upon a time there was a TV show called ‘What’s the Good Word’ hosted by an elegant lady called Sabira Merchant which was all about how to use right words and responses appropriate to the occasion and situation.
Today, with the social media storm blasting the English language to bits and pieces, cryptic words and acronyms -‘Cool’, ‘Yeah’, ‘Wow’, ‘Luv ’, ‘LOL’ ‘YOLO’ and so on, are used to communicate eloquently (with emojis !) apart from the age-old ‘OK’ and ‘Thanks’ – everybody is also having loads of fun !
Traditionally, one-word answers have had their own place in society – a suitor asking for the lady’s hand in marriage must get the ‘Yes’ answer to ‘take the relationship to the next level’, after a long recital of vows by the priest, a man/woman is required to only say ‘I do’ to legalize the marital alliance and in a court of law, the oath to ‘speak truth and nothing but the truth’ needs the same ‘I do’ by a witness. While many competitive exams have confusing objective-type questions to be replied to either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ only, official mails and messages must be pointedly framed and kept short !
Barring above mandatory ones, should all our replies be cryptic to save time and our digital space ? Imagine the chagrin of the old-world, meaningful creators crafting words with thoughtfulness to capture a landmark event, an old memory or experience or to appreciate a good performance, getting a terse ‘Thanks’ or cold silence in return ! It sends a signal that to wade through the writer’s maze of thoughts is a frivolous waste of time, never mind the efforts and intentions behind all of it. That is, if that long text message deserves a reply at all, as there are unending lines of messages, pics and greetings crowding all the social media queues ! Why not become trigger-happy, press the ‘delete’ button and move on …
Even short replies can be effective, if they are sincerely conveyed with right words like ‘Great, will get back to you on this’, to be followed up later when more free. To be fair, a well-meaning piece/message of two paras deserves a couple of encouraging lines in response ( no reference here to trolls that immediately pop up these days !), but it’s free for all and no rules in place.
Acknowledging others through apt words is not losing one’s importance in time and space and responding to thoughtful messages, which come our way, with even a witty one-liner, is a sign of grace and style but are we now fast losing that art too ?
Working on Living 