On the way to work Tuesday morning, I heard a report from a Microsoft executive, touting the latest whiz-bang gadgets being introduced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) this year.

Microsoft is apparently working on a project that will allow XBox users to play games without controllers-just step in front of the TV screen and the game "recognizes" you. It translates the motions of your hands and body to action within the game. Not only that, the games will also identify and interact with your face and your voice.

So now we can talk back to the TV? (Pardon me, but my grandma invented that decades ago.) Of course, in Microsoft's world, the TV will talk back, or at least react to your voice commands.

It's all moving a little too fast for me.

I try to keep up. I'm on Facebook, I've built and maintain several Web sites and subscribe to RSS feeds from others, I have a cell phone. But I've never Tweeted and I don't send text messages. I don't even IM.

Is it just a generational thing? Of course that's a big part of it. The under-20s have never known anything but this world of linked-in, instant communication, while those of us who are... shall we say ... over 20 have been forced to adapt to it.

But I think my biggest issue with all forms of electronic messaging, and that includes the ubiquitous e-mail, is the callous disregard for the English language. We are seeing a generation of young adults grow up, right under our noses, who don't know and don't care about the differences between "their" and "there," or "your" and "you're." There's little or no attention to punctuation or to sentence structure, and grammar goes right out the virtual window.

OK, I admit I'm probably a little more of a "grammar geek" than most people. Words on paper are important to me, but words on a flickering LED screen are no less critical. And what about words on billboards or license plate frames or roadside signs?

If a retail store advertises that it "excepts plastic," doesn't that mean it takes everything BUT credit cards? "My dad is faster then your dad" reads the license plate frame on a midlife crisis sports car.

I watched a marginal movie a few months ago (at my son's insistence) called "Idiocracy," wherein a future world is populated by stupid people who have apparently inherited the earth. As the movie narrator explained, "The years passed, and mankind became stupider at a frightening rate. Some had high hopes that genetic engineering would correct this trend in evolution but, sadly, the greatest minds and resources were focused on conquering hair loss and prolonging erections."

Maybe we should all close the lids on our laptops, turn off the cell phones, and read a book. Preferably without using a Kindle.

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