If you take AP English 3, then you were required to read the article “Verbicide” by David W. Orr. He argues that language is dying and needs to be resurrected. I disagree. I believe that language is simply being reborn.

Sure, we may be losing old words and metaphors that at one point in time held great importance, but nowadays the phrase “the best thing since sliced bread” just doesn’t have the same significance as it used to. Kids today would better relate to “the best thing since Pitbull,” and even that is rather dated.

The Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary includes 171,476 words, but 47,156 of those words are obsolete. Even though the dictionary still contains these archaic words, that doesn’t mean that we have to use them in our daily vocabulary.

For example, words that used to employ great significance now have completely different meanings. In the past, the word “naughty” meant you had nothing; however, now it means you are not getting any presents for Christmas. The overuse of one word in a certain connotation can give it a completely different meaning.

I think this also has something to do with how society reacts when you use more obsolete words. Say you wanted to use the word “embrangle” (definition: embroil, confuse, entangle).  Because it is not a common word, people may ridicule you for using it, saying that you are just trying to show off your vast vocabulary or make them feel stupid. When people retaliate like this, it discourages others from using larger, more complex words, henceforth shoving them into extinction.

While I’m all for getting rid of words that are out of use, I think we still need to preserve language.

These days people communicate through words less frequently than they did decades — or even several centuries — ago. With new technologies, we often carry on an entire conversation only using pictures. I have to confess, I have spent an unreasonable amount of time trying to find the perfect gif to display my emotion, but by only using emojis or gifs to communicate how we are feeling, we are losing the importance of words.

In “Verbicide,” Orr laments the loss of old words.  I think he’d do better to encourage his readers to protect newer words from extinction in the age of digital media.

In a way, society is almost going backwards. In the past, cultures used hieroglyphics to communicate, but now we are essentially using “hiero-gifs”. Yet, if we continue to rely on pictures and other people’s thoughts instead of our own, we may end up like Mrs. Who from A Wrinkle in Time, only using others’ words to speak instead of our own original thoughts.