Bye, “On Language”

It’s a sad day for one of my favourite language columns, “On Language” in the New York Times. After a 32 year run, this is the final week for the column.

“On Language” explored language issues and explained them in an easily accessible way. Ben Zimmer’s final column looks at the future of languages, particularly exploring the impact of technology on the way we communicate and the language we use:

Every aspect of our linguistic life is open to technologization of one form or another, from the way that kids of Blake’s generation will learn to acquire literacy with the help of app-laden multitouch devices to our growing expectations that computer interfaces should be able to recognize our speech and text, understand it and talk back to us.

Do you agree with Zimmer? Is “technologization” going to affect our linguistic lives to such a large extent?