The Year in Language

 

deplatform - verb - to ban, boycott or otherwise limit the influence of someone on a platform, usually a social media or other public forum (TIME, December 27, 2021/January 3, 2022)

The one magazine that I subscribe to and actually read is TIME, a source of more reliable news than most periodicals. I'd like to think so, anyway. At the close of each year, the editors feature a page of neologisms coined or used generously during the course of twelve months. Deplatform is one of eleven featured in the year-end issue. I chose it because I actually deplatformed my former plumber, brother of a deceased close friend of mine, on Facebook due to his disrespectful, misinformed, political posts. Usually, it takes a lot for me to unfriend anyone. This particular person overstepped the borderline of decency, which to me, is a good reason to cancel anyone on any social media platform. (I'm sure you can relate.)

On January 20, 2021, I began writing this blog on blogspot as well as on Tinder, a site on which I no longer post since it represents pornographers as well as artists. I guess the creators must feel as though there is a fine line between the two, which might be logical as there are one or two similarities :). We live in that kind of world, one which is politically correct but not essentially ethical. My initial purpose for composing was on the selfish side because I wanted to attract an audience for my writing since I am looking to publish a memoir through an existing publishing house. Today if you don't wish to self-publish, something I have been doing since 1997 and now have growth tired of since there is so much competition, you have to jump through extra high hoops to prove that there may be a market for your manuscript. Since I no longer care whether or not my book gets picked up (The agent who had been encouraging me for a year wound up being a phony.), at present, I write to share not only possibly unfamiliar vocabulary but slices of life and lessons learned that readers might or might not be able to digest.  Ergo, my purpose is on the selfless side, a side of the street that I always like to occupy. 

I thank all of you regulars (Maybe two of you?) and all those who have visited once or twice for reading this column. 

I am hoping that life will treat us all a bit better in 2022. 

Happy New Year to all! 

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