OMG and LOL added to the dictionary

I thought this article would be a great jumping off point for this new blog, which I should have, in good conscience, started ages ago. One of my personal realizations in this class is the way that academia misunderstands and misappropriates youth culture. While this is an excellent example of the far-reaching potential for this culture to enact distinct forms of change, even in things as basic as language, to be frank, I think that most young people (that is, younger than me) would think that codifying their chatspeak as "culturally significant" would take the enjoyment out of having what was once almost a secret language, understood only within the confines of a social group. Yes, I understand that "OMG" and "LOL" are terms even most adults know and may even use now, but they did not originate in that fashion, and I think acknowledging and, in effect, canonizing these "words" signifies a decline in standards for language, as they aren't even slang terms, but rather, silly acronyms that have pervaded every aspect of daily life. Since the beginning of this class, I've struggled with the idea that the Internet provides an outlet for girls to conform and dumb themselves down more through certain social behaviors, but also by adopting completely bastardized forms of language, and honestly, I find the whole thing unsettling. Basically, I want this blog to be about that disconnect, the way youth culture constructs the Internet and the way adults do.