The Cancer of Key Words

Every internet user knows the value of key words when doing a search. They save time and aggravation and provide instant links to other 'discussions' of the same or similar topics. We agree then, that the necessity for, and use of key words is an internet wonder that deserves the highest praise. What a concept!
What a concept indeed.
However. There is a downside to the use of key words. Users who spend much of their free time on the computer and employ the use of key words on a regular basis - or just simply recognize them from site to site for what they are (they are often highlighted), eventually fall prey to the cancer of them.
The use of key words is nothing more than 'pinpoint editing' of our own thought processes. Ideas, even whole streams of conciousness, are reduced to a few words, entered in a search bar, and VOILA - masses of information spring to your fingertips! Wowza!
Have you ever thought about the ramifications of this? Of thinking in terms of single words or a few definitive ones, to pinpoint the location or meaning of the information you seek or are reading? Have you ever wondered what 'training your brain' to pick just the right words means to your thought process in the long run? Probably not. After all, it's just a tool to save time, right?
Wrong.
It's become evident that the affects of using this tool is also a kind of cancer on the net that is
spreading beyond the the net, right into the way we think, read, and communicate.
Any teen ager with a cell phone quickly becomes a master at the use of key words in conversation through text messaging. Though texting is not searching, the premise is the same, only reversed. Key words are used to convey entire paragraphs of information within a few well chosed words - which themselves are reduced to single letters! Texting itself is a whole other cancer which is shortcircuiting the brains of upcoming generations and changing the language in ways too awful to contemplate here.
On the net, the use of key words, the recognition of them, has only added to the difficulty of gaining the true meaning of what a user posts on various forums. Despite our modern western society and our so called advanced educational systems, it is evident that many people whose first language is English, are basically illiterate. Compound that with the loss of nuance heard in the spoken word: the written word or grouping of words must be very very clear in order for the meaning to come across to a reader they way it was intended by the writer. Dry or sardonic humour for example, loses it's punch when the face and body language of the humourist cannot be seen. Not everyone can write well. And obviously, not everyone can read properly. This comes down, basically, to the brain's picking out of key words, and taking the meaning of the 'piece' written, from those.
We all know how damaging it is to 'take things out of context'. Yet, we do this all the time on the net without even realizing it. Our brain's have been trained to recognize and interpret the meaning of key words, and as a result, entire meanings of posts are lost or interpreted as something different. The result is 'good intentions' turned into something negative. Users are jumped on and vilified. On some forums, the more a user defends themself, the worse it gets.
This has led to a growing number of people holding the opinion that we should 'just let it go and move on'. Why? Unless the original post was obviously intended to harm, hurt or inflame, why shouldn't the record be set straight? SOMEONE has to keep this cancer from growing.
Think about it. Reading has become a short circuited activity. Out of context has become a normal way of interpretation. How utterly sad and discouraging that fewer and fewer people take the time anymore to read ALL the words written in order to obtain the true meaning intended in the writing.
With so many 'poor writers' on the net, whose only form of communication is WRITING, and therefore often being misinterpreted, is it any wonder that so many forums are unhappy places to be? On some forums, responses/topics, entire discussions are being deleted because of a few people's inability to read properly and interpret correctly. I realize that some of these deletions are also to be put at the feet of people who simply disagree with what has been said, no matter how they have read it. This is simply another layer of the key word cancer. Of any internet cancer for that matter. However, the point remains that internet use has retrained our brains to think, read and communicate in short circuited ways which give rise to misunderstanding and the inability to comprehend entire meanings - not just the bits and pieces that generate instant reactions within us.
It is the 'bits and pieces' that we respond to, and in so doing, we spread the cancer with our written reaction.
So is there a cure? Of course there is. LEARN TO READ, every word. Take the time to read it twice if you have to. Remain as neutral as possible and take the time to fully understand. And if you still don't 'get it', ASK before you jump on the writer, or at least remain civil in your response. And read more books and less online 'bits and pieces'! Start with Joseph Conrad - there's a writer who will teach you rather quickly, the meaning of every word written in relation to the entire message of the story!