"Language is always evolving. It's difficult to read Shakespeare now because language has shifted. Similarly, kids these days can get to the point really quick in about 140 characters or less because of these new tools"
About this Quote
Qualman frames linguistic change as both inevitable and strategically useful, yoking Shakespeare to Twitter in a move designed to relax the reader: if we tolerate archaisms in iambic pentameter, why panic over abbreviation and bite-sized posts? The intent is persuasive, not nostalgic. He’s arguing against language purism by recasting “kids these days” not as cultural decline but as adaptation to new constraints.
The subtext is where the line does its real work. “Difficult to read Shakespeare” functions as a credibility anchor: it reminds you that even the most sanctified English feels “wrong” without historical context, so today’s slang and compressed syntax shouldn’t be treated as moral failure. Then he slips in an efficiency ethic: “get to the point really quick.” That phrase isn’t neutral. It implies that brevity equals clarity, that frictionless communication is a virtue, and that platforms are “tools” rather than corporate environments with incentives.
The context matters: Qualman is a digital-era business author, and this is classic social-media optimism. The 140-character reference ties it to peak Twitter logic, when compression was celebrated as creative discipline and attention became the scarce resource. What’s left unsaid is the trade-off: speed can reward punchlines over nuance, certainty over exploration, and performance over thought. By pairing Shakespeare with micro-posts, Qualman elevates the new medium without interrogating how it shapes what counts as “the point.” The quote sells evolution; it quietly endorses the market’s preferred direction for that evolution.
The subtext is where the line does its real work. “Difficult to read Shakespeare” functions as a credibility anchor: it reminds you that even the most sanctified English feels “wrong” without historical context, so today’s slang and compressed syntax shouldn’t be treated as moral failure. Then he slips in an efficiency ethic: “get to the point really quick.” That phrase isn’t neutral. It implies that brevity equals clarity, that frictionless communication is a virtue, and that platforms are “tools” rather than corporate environments with incentives.
The context matters: Qualman is a digital-era business author, and this is classic social-media optimism. The 140-character reference ties it to peak Twitter logic, when compression was celebrated as creative discipline and attention became the scarce resource. What’s left unsaid is the trade-off: speed can reward punchlines over nuance, certainty over exploration, and performance over thought. By pairing Shakespeare with micro-posts, Qualman elevates the new medium without interrogating how it shapes what counts as “the point.” The quote sells evolution; it quietly endorses the market’s preferred direction for that evolution.
Quote Details
| Topic | Internet |
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