Dan thinks it is evolution. To me it's stupidity, laziness, and apathy. I have to respectfully disagree. Or maybe I'm just being stubborn.
For whatever reason, whenever I get e-mail from someone who:
- Writes "ur" instead of "you are" or "ru" instead of "are you".
- Ends every sentence with a period, even when some of them are clearly questions.
- Omits apostrophes--like saying "I dont get it" instead of "I don't get it".
- Doesn't use the shift key AT ALL and writes in all lower-case.
I automatically assume that he or she is a little too dumb, a little too "pre-teen in a sex chartroom", a little too hip, a little too... annoying.
I relax my standards a bit for IM conversations, but even then overuse will get on my nerves pretty fast.
Posted by jzawodn at September 19, 2002 10:30 PM
Well, I DID go to a public school... Just because you Johnnies grogged the King's English pre-IRC doesn't mean you should ignore the impact that spending several hours a day chatting is going to have on this younger generation. English is a living language. Granted, it has rules, and the violations you list above piss me off to end. But I'm almost *gasp* 30. It's supposed to piss me off.
However, that is how these kids communicate. Is it appropriate for a classroom? Hell no. But all I said was that English teachers never appreciate these changes in how kids communicate. That doesn't mean I wouldn't run out of red ink if I were grading these papers.
(I've been waiting for the better part of a decade to call you a Johnnie. :P)
ur views on using im instead of i'm and ur instead of your or you're are a bit elitist. grow up.
I've been thinkin' 'bout this all weekend. Seems to my reckonin' that the we talk in various social circles don't make it proper language ta be used in a class room.
There is a proper way to express one's self in written language, and there are appropriate times when license is given to skew and warp language (i.e. litterature). If these children think that they will be able to communicate in formal settings with such informal language, they will find a very low cieling for their carrier.
It's easier to learn proper written language skills as a youth than as a middle-aged middle manager. You can always glory at how you "fight the system," but it's probably important to remember that the "system" has evolved from generations of those fights, and is today what more than you have made it.
ah, I feel better. I've written something that no one is likely ever to read....
re: anon.
There is a problem with it, dickhead. There was probably a problem, initially, when "I am" became "I'm" from laziness, but getting even lazier and not bothering about an apostrophe makes it ambiguous and difficult to interpret. IM is an acronym, how do we know that's not what you mean? "im" could be a word. "ur" is the epitomy of laziness and stupidity and just exemplifies that you can't retain knowledge of linguistic rules which determine how we write and therefore how we interpret things. How do we know when you mean "you're" and "your" if you type "ur". Fuck, you dickheads are getting so lazy now you don't even space them so intelligent people can determine if you're trying to spell a pronouncable word, "ur". It came from "u" sounding like "you" and "r" sounding like "are", dickup, do you even remember that?
Stop being so lazy and incoherent. You're making this already complex and convoluted more fucking hard to understand than it already is.
THis is a new evolution of language evolving from the underclasses in my areas in PAtesron. On cell phones (pre-paid) one must use the text messages cost effectively so people cut the words down. It is not they dont know how to write , it is also a CODE for those who can figure it out.
Jill Starr in NJ - USA
