The Internet and the Spread of Illiteracy

I didn't find a specific forum for this topic, so here is where I am.
Before the internet, I wouldn't commonly witness others spelling and grammar skills put to use. So I had just assumed that most everyone else also obtained (and retained) a similar understanding of the language. I mean, I realize not everyone is/was an English major in college, but what I'm seeing written nowadays by (alleged) adults wouldn't have been acceptable of elementary school students when I went to school. Just like obesity, it's become an epidemic and the saddest part is that those who speak out about it are labeled "insensitive" or "bullies".
It's now acceptable to be a 480lb illiterate transvestite hooker on methadone. FTW

Bob Dylan ~ Times are a changing!

I couldn't agree more. It's mind blowing to me. A good friend texted me recently, "my fone dyed"

Like did he have to defeat auto correct to send that text? And no he wasn't joking.

I admit my spelling has suffered since auto correct but if I'm writing and not sure I look it up. It means something to me to use proper English and grammar.

Lester Beans said:

It means something to me to use proper English and grammar.

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I think that "something" is called self-respect. Unfortunately, ignorance is bliss. I'm immediately reminded of Idiocracy; "why's he talk like that?"

The amount of shits given went down drastically when I found myself typing more on a phone than a keyboard. That comined with an occasional buzz.

Not so much that I cannot spell or speak correctly as much as I frequently do not proof read or actually care as long as my point gets across.

Been telling myself I need a new laptop and to trade the smartphone in for a phone phone.

I wish I had taken a picture of the sign in front of the school up the street.

"Have a nice summer. C U next year"

And, you wonder why the kids can't read or write? Summer was not capped and... well, R U 4 Real? LMAO

We have a state required minimum that graduating students must pass to be state 'certified' and to graduate. The BEST school we have had 30% of the students who could not read or write. That was our best school. Our worst school had over 70% of the students who could not read or write at a grade school level.

I spoke with a teacher and she said, "The most important part about teaching is finding the proper medication for the child. Without being medicated, they can't learn."

Those were her exact words.

I took a moment trying to explain to her that it it normal for a 10 year old boy to be active but I quickly found I was upon deaf ears.

My point..... It isn't going to get better. LMAO




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Hey hun howz u?

Ringodoggie said:

I wish I had taken a picture of the sign in front of the school up the street.

"Have a nice summer. C U next year"

And, you wonder why the kids can't read or write? Summer was not capped and... well, R U 4 Real? LMAO

We have a state required minimum that graduating students must pass to be state 'certified' and to graduate. The BEST school we have had 30% of the students who could not read or write. That was our best school. Our worst school had over 70% of the students who could not read or write at a grade school level.

I spoke with a teacher and she said, "The most important part about teaching is finding the proper medication for the child. Without being medicated, they can't learn."

Those were her exact words.

I took a moment trying to explain to her that it it normal for a 10 year old boy to be active but I quickly found I was upon deaf ears.

My point..... It isn't going to get better. LMAO




.

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This is fucked up. We have already had teachers mention the possibility of mecication and they are shocked to find out none of my 6 family members use much of any medication ever. And the idea that a 9 year old boy had extra energy and limited attention span yet stiil gets good grades needs medicated is absurd. We limit television, computers, artificial foods and my kids all are socially adjusted just opinionated like their dad.

That is all bad re: the medication. Because if a doctor or someone tells you or your parents you have a problem, they are imposing something on you. What if giving children pills is bad news? What if pills are bad news? How do you fit that into the conversation with the doctor and the teacher present? It seems a bit daunting like we've gone too far to recover.

I have a different view on the literacy argument. I agree with others here. I was also surprised to see the way people text and communicate. But this is something new. Even if the quality is low, people may be writing and communicating now more than ever. So we are seeing people who would not normally write essays or novels, writing much more than they would previously. People may not necessarily be losing their ability to write properly, we may just be seeing a larger volume of lower quality writing. Before you had to go through a lot of hoops to publish. Now it's pretty easy to publish online, to friends etc.

As long as I understand I don't care about grammar or spelling. It is nice in a didactic sense but trying to correct people might drive me nuts. Verbally I talk different, I tend to use slang and slur my words, nearly a minimum effort speech. I have to concentrate and work at it to properly enunciate each word.

I often find conversation between certain young persons very hard to follow and the written word even worse but I am nearly 55 so that’s my excuse lol lol ,,,,s2

Mengsk said:

That is all bad re: the medication. Because if a doctor or someone tells you or your parents you have a problem, they are imposing something on you. What if giving children pills is bad news? What if pills are bad news? How do you fit that into the conversation with the doctor and the teacher present? It seems a bit daunting like we've gone too far to recover.

I have a different view on the literacy argument. I agree with others here. I was also surprised to see the way people text and communicate. But this is something new. Even if the quality is low, people may be writing and communicating now more than ever. So we are seeing people who would not normally write essays or novels, writing much more than they would previously. People may not necessarily be losing their ability to write properly, we may just be seeing a larger volume of lower quality writing. Before you had to go through a lot of hoops to publish. Now it's pretty easy to publish online, to friends. etc.

As long as I understand I don't care about grammar or spelling. It is nice in a didactic sense but trying to correct people might drive me nuts. Verbally I talk different, I tend to use slang and slur my words, nearly a minimum effort speech. I have to concentrate and work at it to properly enunciate each word.

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I do think we are increasingly our ability to communicate, not always rationally but still putting our thoughts in writting. If I had to choose I would say the ability for more people to communicate outweighs benifits of proper grammar. Plus, languages change and new language emerges. What was the proper gramner for my internet is not working just 100 years ago.

I think the ability to articulate a concept is important and is probably a sign a language is working effectively.

Not totally related but I find it interesting as well aa a tad scary. When I was a kid we had newspapers and nightly news. And a few people had cable. Now we all recieve our news from so many places that anyone with a legitimate message worth everyones attention it gets diluted. Algorithmed away by preference. I think this also fits into the language and illiteracy category because our information sources frequently favor one group of people. And never reaches the demographic that needs the new information.

Hope that does not sound like too much of a ramble.

The current best schools in the USA are achieving 40% literacy rates and they're falling

Leading by example POTUS can hardly read and has to use a fat felt pen to sign documents, I still find the way he shows it off afterwards is "see I can write my name" gesture

bigtacofarmer yes I agree about which news makes it where. There is a certain sense of fighting an uphill battle, because I will never be a Harvard Stanford dropout tech CEO with those resources at my disposal. And I suspect some powers that be are making efforts to direct those algorithms. It is level upon level of social engineering, or who has the "power" in our society.

In San Francisco the one big tech company is Twitter, Trump's favourite. I saw Twitter hire some guy from Alabama. The other, Facebook, Zuckerberg put his name on the county hospital. It does kind of remind me of a soviet-era, or police-state, territory rather than a democracy. The falsely elected president's corrupt tech company right beside the growing high rises and facebook hospital that used to be county hospital. And this internet thing, feeding news and tricking people with cell phones, is basically the premise for his presidential election in the first place. Without a bogus social media campaign I don't think he would have been elected. They even aired footage of the collusion on national television as though it somehow isn't a crime. This guy cheated his way into office so there is no reason to think anything more of him or anyone else involved other than a cheat which ranks quite low on moral standards. With more traffic like NYC and enough displaced people (gentrification) to change the social attitude in my opinion. If everyone stops being nice because they are too busy, the city is lost. I don't mean lost like losing in a battle, I just mean it is no longer pleasant to exist in a place if that place is now more new york than san francisco. Rude impolite in a hurry and wanting more and more money. It's all stuff that puts people into an early grave. Die rich and young or eek out a meagre existence, I've not found the answer or recipe but those seem like two paths. A certain population density for a city might be favourable or a sweet spot but once you pass that level of development happiness may decline. Rural = boring, urban = nice, too crowded = aggravating.

Every thread goes to Trump.

iTarzan said:

Every thread goes to Trump.

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Its not so much that he deserves the blame for everything wrong with the country as his is proof of how much is wrong with it.

^^ 'proof of how much is wrong with it' You do not mean massive immigration legal and illegal or the power structure in place before Trump got there, do you? He was elected to remedy that situation.

Technology now fascinates people that would be considered dumb before it arrived. People that collectively would never be able to build a phone or gaming console if they had a million years to do it. But they can not get enough of looking at screens and pushing buttons.

Personally I find the wall idea completely retarded and most likely a coverup for whatever else the idiot is up to. Maybe the power structure needed gutted but not by a narcissist 3 year old.

I'm a Non-English person. English was one of the several languages I studied in University (besides my main courses).
I do my best here at the forum to write with as little as possible spellingerrors grammatically correct sentences.

The 'problem' I have is that I can't get the spellingchecker to work on my phone. I refuse to use other online spellingcheckers because without the aid of a spellingchecker I need now to use all of my knowledge about the English vocabulary and grammar to express myself. This actually improves my English skills.

It really baffles my mind that there are people in the Western world that aren't capable of correctly using their own native language.

For me the internet is a place where I can improve my foreign languages skills.

The thing what does bother me on the internet is how poor people their social skills are. I see it every day here at the forum. Click onto any thread and you can bet that before the thread is 5 pages long people start bashing at each other. I don't know if it's because of poor social/communication skills or that it's people with severe mental issues.

^^ Trump derangement syndrome where 3 year olds pout about Trump getting fairly elected.

I heard the best English from a German working in America. You figure it out.

Cvh said:

I'm a Non-English person. English was one of the several languages I studied in University (besides my main courses).
I do my best here at the forum to write with as little as possible spellingerrors grammatically correct sentences.

The 'problem' I have is that I can't get the spellingchecker to work on my phone. I refuse to use other online spellingcheckers because without the aid of a spellingchecker I need now to use all of my knowledge about the English vocabulary and grammar to express myself. This actually improves my English skills.

It really baffles my mind that there are people in the Western world that aren't capable of correctly using their own native language.

For me the internet is a place where I can improve my foreign languages skills.

The thing what does bother me on the internet is how poor people their social skills are. I see it every day here at the forum. Click onto any thread and you can bet that before the thread is 5 pages long people start bashing at each other. I don't know if it's because of poor social/communication skills or that it's people with severe mental issues.

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I don't think anyone is having a go at people for whom English is a second language. For the record your English is excellent and I wouldn't have guessed that. The issue is with people who should know better. Being able to read, speak properly, spell and form a sentence are the absolute minimum skills a person should take from the school system. Honestly if someone leaves school and can't do these basic things, what's the point in going to school? These skills are the basics needed in life.