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Literacy Limps Into the Kill Zone
Ant writes to tell us that Wired has an interesting look at the current standards of writing and the general decline of spelling and grammar in today's "comic book generation." The author blames many of the problems on instant or near-instant communications stating that the slang developed is essentially eroding our ability to formulate coherent thoughts in writing when called upon to do so.
wur r they talkin abt? lol g2g cya
You didn't really have to go and proove them right, did you?
IMAGE VERIFICATION IS EVIL!
Also, a roman once said the same thing or a greek. That the young people of today are a generation that look down on the world and are showing no moral principels or showing problems with language and spelling and all the hoo haa he could drag up. And this was BC.
Yeah, and what happened after that? look up Europe's history starting about the time when the Western Roman Empire collapsed. Feel free to go all the way up to the Middle Ages if you like.
Methinks you need to work up a better argument, sonny.
Goerge was wrong.
So instead of double speek in 1984, we get half speek in 2006.
Not to flame you or anything like that, but you should have used a semicolon instead of a comma after the word "grammar" in the fifth paragraph. ;-)
"What I need is an exact list of specific unknown problems we might encounter."
this thought is nothing new: morals, the language, etc.: it's all going to pot, the end of the world is nigh, etc.
bullshit
what is going on is that some people are almost autistic in their attachment to certain signifiers of what "good language" is or what "moral behavior" is
human beings need morality, and they need to communicate. these needs are nver going away, nor are our ability to satisfy those needs ever going away
it is just that, from one century to the next, what signifies these things changes
but so you have some people becoming hysterical ninnies because what signifies these things to them changes, and they can't deal with it
they're just brittle people
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
So you're saying that English is like Perl?
Ah, yes... the #1 pick-up line of all times:
Say, does this rag smell like clorophorm to you?
Ignore this signature. By order.
Our literacy is eroding? WTF? OMG! ROFL!
BRB
A thread where spelling and grammar nazis won't be modded off-topic! Yes!
Telltale Games: Bone, Sam and Max
What they don't realise is that language changes, and every generation understands this. When language changes in a radical way, someone will whine and cry out in defence of the older understanding of what constitutes literacy and proper grammar. In 1940, George Orwell said people were writing English poorly, and soon they wouldn't be able to communicate at all. He was wrong, as we clearly have a functioning world with millions of English speakers some 70 years later. I'm not certain, but I believe the ancient Romans or Greeks also complained of the same debasement of their language. They bemoaned and bleated that the young people of their time were a generation that looked down on the world, showing no moral principles and a feeble understanding of grammar and spelling.
I think the people who complain about the language skills of the young have old minds stuck in a new world where communication practices have changed radically and rapidly. The elderly often have difficulty communicating with youth, but the young are the future, and as long as they can communicate effectively, that is sufficient.
Now that was just a quick edit of the stinking tourde you squeezed out for us here on Slashdot. If you are going to write about how narrow-minded prigs are holding back the Voice of Yoot', then kindly do so in a way that demonstrates a fundamental and careful grasp of the language. Otherwise, all you are doing is proving the point of the article - that young people are borderline illiterate dopes incapable of formulating complex thoughts or elucidating anything of insight or value.
Now, kindly go back to school and learn how to write.
Fucktard.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Accuracy of the quotes aside, you'd have made a much more interesting and relevant point had the progression gone more like this.
"Students today can't prepare bark to calculate their problems.
They depend upon their slates which are more expensive. What will they do
when their slate is dropped and it breaks? They will be unable to write!"
-Teacher's Conference, 1790
"Students today use too much paper too much. They don't know how
to write on slate without getting all dusty. They can't clean a slate.
What will they do when they all run all out of paper?"
-Principal's Association, 1815
"Students are loosing their mind. They don't know how to do the things
that get them ink. When they run out of ink they will be unable to write
all those curly letters and cute numbers until they're next trip to the
place with shops and stores. I am crying."
-The Rural Amercan Teecher, 1929
"Students 2day use spensive pens. They like, what the heck is a strait
pin and nib(?) (dont' get me started on quills). They need to stop riting
and facus on sports and singing so they can be rich."
-PTA Paper,1941
"Pens ruin teachy-smarts in US. Kids use pens. Throw pens away.
Good US goodness, not waste, gone. Shop-shop and save-save all gone.
Me eat pens. Pens good food, not write-write."
-a cave, 1950
The quotes above are real, btw, I got them using my time machine (thanks John T.), a Britney Spears album which I dropped off in the early 1800's, and Google Talk, so please no comments to the effect that I made these up. That kind of thing hurts. Seriously. Ouch.
Bash.org quote #367896
<Fashykekes> Capitalization is the difference between "I had to help my uncle Jack off a horse.." and "I had to help my uncle jack off a horse.."
:)
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo!
It's OK, I knew what you meant anyway :)
Here's a perfect example of why proper punctuation is important (not mine, I stole it from someone else, can't remember who though):
I helped my uncle jack off a horse
I'm either a very helpful, or a very sick person. Which one is anyone's guess.