10,000 and Counting

If you had to guess how many words you know, what number would it be?

Definitely more than hundreds.

It’s thousands, for sure.

But how many thousands?

4,000? 5,000?

Well, if you were an average teenager in the 1950s, you’d know a whopping 25,000 words, according to research. Those were the days when black and white TVs had just been introduced in the US, and “Leave It to Beaver” was a hit TV show.

Nowadays, the average teenager knows less than half that number–about 10,000. While that might still sound like a lot of words–and it is–it makes you wonder why there’s been such a huge drop in the number of words now being used.

Some words get used a lot these days–for example, “duh,” “like,” “no way,” etc. But that can’t be the only reason.

What’s your theory of why teenagers now know so many fewer words than in the past? Is everyone becoming a bit too laconicDefinition: Terse, using just a few words?