Steinbeck, Shelley, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner – a few monumental authors who skillfully painted pictures with their words. Before televisions, radios and iPhones, books were the primary source for escaping our everyday lives. Stories of kids going on heroic journeys, legends of utopias and nostalgic monsters yearning for affection were told using words. I know hardly anyone is reminiscent or appreciative of having to physically fetch a dictionary in order to understand a word and likewise for a thesaurus. With technology those resources are now at our fingertips – but even so, we no longer have the desire to look up words. Although the resources are easier than ever, we are significantly using them at a nearly non-existent rate.   Ask yourself, when was the last time you looked up a word you did not understand or even used a thesaurus to expand your vocabulary. For those of you in school, I’m sure you have clicked on a word in your essay because it was too generic or simplistic, found a word that made you sound a bit more sophisticated and plucked it in without second glance. What exactly did you achieve in that process? Truthfully, I think the only thing you get kudos for is your professor or teacher will clearly identify that some of those dainty words in your paper were pulled from a thesaurus. I am not writing on behalf of someone who has never done that themselves because, confession time, I wanted my AP Literature and AP English teacher to think I was well-suited for the class. There is always this notion that those who write eloquently possess a form of intellect – I think we can all agree nobody wants to appear dimwitted.   Now I don’t think everyone is as invested in the revival of intellectual jargon both written and spoken, but I do find that it is important. Studies have questioned if our vocabularies are shrinking due to the use of emojis (as substitutions for words and ideas) and we’re not using language in a way that will allow us to remember new words. We most likely aren’t looking up words we’ve never seen, so we reuse the same vocabulary on a day-to-day basis. The result? Speaking to our friends with the same dry vocabulary, our friends absorb our familiar vocab and no enticing language has been exchanged – we aren’t using idioms worth looking up. (Yes, I looked up another word for jargon because I was out of ideas.) This isn’t meant to be a lecture but it is however something I feel should be brought to our attention. I know, I know, I sound entirely nerdy and loser-ish (not really a word) for investing so much time in trying to convey the importance of using a stronger vocabulary but just imagine – guys, instead of using the same cheesy pickup lines, a girl would be remotely impressed with your smooth talk and find you rather attractive if you could stimulate her intellectually with some fancy words. You’d have her in the bag (so to speak)! This morning I came across an Elite Daily article that reviewed an app called WordsU, which basically is the reason I am writing this article (upon one other instance that made me question our desire to maintain a stronger vocabulary). The app is really quite simple. It is just like a text message conversation but after submitting your message, it changes some of the words you’ve used to something that could have been a bit more, “intellectual” and tells you the meaning. Clever right?    Only downfall is all conversations are held within the resources of the app. You can’t use it in your iMessages and outside text messages. However, after speaking with the creator of the application, currently the works of a new keyboard, that will allow you to expand outside the perimeters of the application, is underway. Rejoice! (Or don’t, because you probably aren’t as excited as I am about it). Bottom-line? Download it so I have someone to use it with and so you can strengthen your romance game. In no time you’ll be swooning someone with some fancy words in a bar, or you’ll be impressing your teachers with the fact that you’ve begun to speak more fluently, not just on paper. Then you’ll have to thank WordsU.  (As for editing, that is an entirely different story and I will admit, I just post all my articles without revising).  [Insert worried emoji face and waving hand]