The question "can I go to the bathroom?" creates a dichotomy that haunts the public school system. For the longest time, teachers dominated the argument with the ultimate comeback: "I don't know, can you?" Fed up with the nitpicking, students made the question their own, retorting that they were "using can in its secondary modal form as a verbal modifier asking for permission, as opposed to expressing an ability," intoning that surely a teacher would be aware of that.
The intention of picking at minor grammatical ambiguities was never actually intended to teach a lesson; the action is nothing more than annoying and rarely prompts "proper" English speech. This is likely due to the fact that there is no "proper" English speech. Though there's a vague understanding of what counts as Standard English, the English language is split into various dialects that are all evolving at a constant pace.
The evolution of the English language is unavoidable, but that doesn't stop the generations left behind by the language from scoffing at the changes. The linguistic changes that occur from technological advances do nothing to bridge the gap. Instead, as technology changes and as language changes, the generational gap becomes more pronounced. The older generation, never able to completely grasp the importance of the intonation that emojis provide to an otherwise soundless form of communication, remains bitterly out of the loop of the younger generation that quickly catches onto the ever-changing language. The bitterness prompts all the critique around how technology is killing our brain cells and enslaving us into a species of mindless idiots. Of course, "text talk" looks alien to those over 40, and of course, anything that deviates from what is learned and ingrained will come under attack.
The one thing this attack is doing is making it seem as though those who have mastered this developing language are less educated for using abbreviated language in texts or for using "literally" to mean "figuratively" instead. The evolution in dialect is not an indication of education or an indication of writing capabilities. The older generation's inability to accept these changes and their inclination to deride them will always say more about them than it says about us.
