American usage makes life easier The usage of words is part of everyone's life. Whether through text messages, letters, or face-to-face conversations, we use words. When we need help, we consult a dictionary but every dictionary is different. There are liberal and conservative dictionaries and each of them contains the same words but different connotations. David Foster Wallace in Authority and American Usage tells us how our language is controlled by those we did not choose. The words we use were decided for us and have become the standard for language today, creating a common denominator and making life easier. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Our dictionaries are divided between “notoriously liberal and others notoriously conservative” (Wallace 389). This makes life a little more difficult because there can be a division of connotations. But in general, they will have very similar meanings. Wallace complains about the difference between dictionaries and that someone deciding to have authority over words is not a good thing. This authority has helped us because there is no division or distrust when it comes to definitions. This has helped create a common language that even foreigners can understand somewhat. While this can be problematic, a single place for US usage has been even more helpful. When someone needs to know a definition, there are no competing theories about a word's meaning and these have been modernized. Many words from centuries ago have been removed from the language and replaced with other words with the same meaning. The same goes for slang. Although not everyone uses slang and each region has its own slang, there are common denominators that everyone can understand. So even if someone doesn't understand the slang, it can be described using the authority a person had over the words. Social media also has advanced language. “Social media makes it possible, more than ever, to contribute to the evolution of language” (Oxford). The authority that creates our dictionaries does not create the words that social media creates. People are starting to use words like “selfie” and it is starting to gain traction as many people are starting to use it as well. They are becoming popular enough to fit into everyday sentences. Even when a word is not official in the dictionary, the Internet contributes to its diffusion throughout the world. People who don't speak English will still know if they are on social media regularly because it will be universal. Wallace describes the introductions in dictionaries, although "the average person who consults the Dictionary just to see how to spell meringue" does not read it, which contains "Usage Wars" (Wallace 396). In these introductions, the authors of the dictionary will show that they are either conservative prescriptivists or liberal descriptivists, which will change the way the dictionary is written, whether in terms of definitions or connotations. Wallace describes pop prescriptivism as “old men complaining about the vulgarity of modern mores” (Wallace 397). The dictionaries they create are based on older English and are much more conservative. Their use of words can also be offensive, which Wallace used as an example of the rejection of Standard Black English. Slang is used more often and one prescriptivist said it goes against grammar.