The Loss of Literacy in Modern America

[Red 4]

I believe that not only are the genes getting messier and messier but i also believe it is because of Television and junk food i mean don't get me wrong i watch plenty of TV and eat plenty of junk food but i also study,get good grades and excercise, excercise is a word most american children don't recognize as a word anymore, and as for the gene idea i believe that it is because of job requirements being so easy to reach, "did you pass at least two years of highschool?", "yes", "aw heck then your in". these low requirements is whats putting smart people on the streets. That and the lack of education even most business owners have. So i believe that in 30 years people won't be able to (or need to) read at all.  

[Clearly Opaque]

Yami no Hitokiri

What has prompted the loss of literacy in modern America? Is it the mass media, laziness, ineptitude, stupidity? Are generation after generation of people indeed becoming stupider than their ancestors through the passing on of defective genes? Is television to blame for luring children to its blue glare and away from books? Will the average American even be able to read above a sixth grade level in 30 years?

Thoughts, opinions?

Note: In the poll, I do leave out the apostrophe. I have to because the poll won't go through with apostrophes in the answers. Thanks for another brilliant glitch, Gaia!

I believe it is partially the constant influx of immigrants. I am not entirely blaming the immigrants, but I am wholily blaming the people who refuse to learn the language of the people whose country they have moved into. If you move to an English Speaking Country, LEARN ENGLISH! But then there are law makers who SUPPORT the the ideal of teaching people in their language to "make things more comfortable" for them, thus making things MORE DIFFICULT for those who DO speak English. Then add the use of 10 different languages on every box of cereal, every bag of sugar.....come ON PEOPLE....they won't have any need to learn English if they are BABIED at every step! This then adds to the excuse I so often see kids these days using: "I was born and raised in the States, but English is my second language!"

Then you add rap, which is commonly in my opinion short for Crap, or even, bear with me the shame of such a thought, but rapE of the English language. Some years ago the entire "We be oppressd Niggas!" Movement came along, and in shame this country cowed to this s**t. I am sorry, racism aside here....Your great granddaddy wasn't even a slave in this day and age, SO GET THE HELL OVER YOUR EXCUSES FOR BEING AN IDIOT! "Ebonix" is the biggest load of horse s**t I have ever heard! And imagine this, they actually TEACH SOME SCHOOLS ENTIRELY IN THIS CRAP!! Shocking. Some high schools allow English literature papers written in this! Yeah, well, I went to a REAL University, and paid GOOD MONEY for the English degree I have....and when my teachers got a paper written like this: "Yeah, and his momma was up in that s**t, and doggin round da neebeerhood with the G's....and then she hed hair sum of hid daddy and got him up in there and named him Alexander der Greet!" those people who LAUGHED AT and PUBLICLY HUMILIATED in front of the entire class if they so much as said boo in argument for this lack of intelligence and suitable education.

Then there is peer validation....."Yeah yeah muh homies are all inta dis talk cause iz all l33t!" Enough said. I wish they could see and hear how utterly STUPID they sound to the rest of us. SURE, my friends and I have a "language" and "code speak" we use, but we can and will all speak clear fluent English, and some of us, clear and fluent German, French, Japanese, or other languages! We know when it's appropriate and when it becomes an excuse for your lack of either education or intelligence!

Then add television that many times ENCOURAGES this lack of caring for the language, and a school education system that ALLOWS IGNORANCE TO BE RAMPANT, and then the bad genes from parents who grew up being fed this s**t about "You're a racist if you say 'English Only!' now"....and well, recipe for stupidity. You don't see other civilized countries allowing this s**t....hell, most other countries are LAUGHING at the US for their poor education system for children and high school children, and even the "laxative laden college" systems that promote this s**t as a norm.

THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR IGNORANCE!  

[Setsu-P has stepped out]

I'll add a new answer: "Most Of The Above"

The advent and development of the internet have played a large part. I recall IRC chat sessions in which the worst you'd have to see was "a/s/l", "IRL", and others. Just the basics back then. Now we seem to have acronyms for just about everything.

Some people simply type that way to be part of the "in" crowd, I suppose. At least, they swear that's the only reason.

The education system is going down the tubes in part because of over-emphasis on extracurricular activities. I'm not anti-sports by any means. Everyone should be more physically active, especially school-age kids. The drive to even out the grading curve and bring every class down a few notches to help support those students who can't or won't try to keep up is a big mistake. Giving rewards for mediocre performance, or simply showing up, is also a mistake. Students aren't being encouraged to excel like they used to.

Laziness. Laziness on the part of the individual students, on the education system, and on the parents. A lack of discipline. Unfortunately, we've been preaching that it's okay to be irresponsible, that you don't have to be responsible for your own actions, for what's happened to you.

I'd like to send an anonymous e-mail to FOX, and advise them to send their ticker-writer back to school. I understand if he has to type quickly, but he's been getting worse. It's driving my mom crazy.

Spellcheckers, proofreaders and editors aside, there have been more mistakes in printed media recently than I care to think about. Check your local newspaper. Read a paperback published in the last three to five years. It's disturbing.

I'm not a population expert, and I won't try to discuss our immigration policies (or lack thereof). I will point out, however, that the lower levels of our population have been breeding unchecked, while the more intelligent people tend to wait longer before having children. In most species, the creatures that reproduce in mass numbers are considered prey...  

[HarleeQuinnGirl]

I choose 'Peer Validation'.Because that's how I was sucked into the dark abssy of Chat Speak.Because everyone else in the chatroom was doing it,I'm a pretty slow typer,and you had to be quick with your response before everything scrolled up too far.
I was going to say something about rap,but Clearly Opaque beat me to it and just totally took the words right out of my mouth and said them even better. mrgreen
And Ebonics(or however it's spelled)...The only part of that I know is that being called 'Dog',is not an insult.  

[HoKitsune]

Yami no Hitokiri

It seems to me that job requirements are already quite stiff. Even a carpentry place takes those with a college degree over those with only a high school diploma. What the hell for? Why does one need a college degree to learn how to work with wood and tools?!

I myself tend to blame peer validation. Parents set their young child in front of a computer. The young child inevitably meets up with other young children, or older teenagers online. Thanks to the shitty public school systems, many kids can't spell worth s**t nowadays. Therefore these younger children are exposed to the stupidity and illiteracy of the older ones.

Or you might have a teen who's a very accurate speller but who wants to fit in when he chats online or on message boards, so he purposely uses "txt tlk" when he chats. I was guilty of this myself. I felt like everyone else was doing it, so why shouldn't I do it to fit in? I only stopped when I realized that I was making an a** of myself.

Well, that's my take on it.

I would have to agree it seems to be peer pressure. I don't really believe it has to do anything with genetics. I can spell pretty well, but due to the ease and quickness of "txt tlk" such as "wat up" or "nm" I have used it. I use to always use "txt tlk" then I too relized I was being stupid.  

[wcs792]

I blame America's short attention span. In an MMORPG, if it isn't short, people just aren't going to read it, so most MMO players cut their words down.  

[Marcello the painter]

I believe it's a combination of many things. First off being laziness.
Children are lazy and think there are better ways to spend their time than reading. Children aren't taught to read for fun but rather for work. Too few aren't exposed to the fun of reading. Modern media makes books on tape and movies in place of reading. Many peers of mine think watching a movie of a book is just as fun if not more fun than reading the book itself. I can name about many books I've read that were later made into movies which I've enjoyed watching more than I ever would have if I hadn't read the book. With as bad as today's youth is I'll hate to see the America my children will grow up in.  

[Cat Without a Hat]

I blame laziness and computers. I decided on computers because if we did not have chat rooms and MSN, no one would have thought to create "txt talk" as you call it. There are certainly some peer validation issues as well, and I have been laughed at for capitalizing and punctuating my sentances. In the long run, however, I think people realize that you are not trying to be stuck up, you are simply trying to be clear.

 

[saotomi5102]

I think, based on the topics of literacy and culture, Japan has us beat. They have a very deep, non-commercial culture and have 99.9% literacy rate. The 2 people in Japan who can't read and write and being trained as we speak. Go japan.  

[Banvivrie]

Setsu-P

I'll add a new answer: "Most Of The Above"

Thank you. I was actually thinking the same thing. I don't think it's fair to pin down all of these problems on just one source. It would have to be a combination of things to cause so much of a drop in intelligent speaking and writing. It ranges from the "x-treme" new brands of toothpaste all the way to the "1337 haxor" computer nerds we've all seen so much of lately.

I can't possibly choose one thing.

Edit: That was my first guild post. smile  

[Sweet Blushes]

It is tryuly sad for what has happened to our beautiful literacy. I guess we all must pray that our future will still remain pro-literacy.  

[Spiritually]

Pure laziness. Most of my peers in class are post-smoking/goth/emo losers who hang out with other goth/emo losers, and get them to smoke pot too. Who thought up of the word "emo" anyway? What's wrong with the ending, "-tional." I'm sorry, I didn't know the word emotional was synonymous with crybaby. Anyway, the pot makes them lazy. Oh, and they always blame their parents-- why? What the hell did your parents do to you-- besides feed and clothe you? Oh, and give you a bed to sleep in? Maybe even let you live there-- for free? Wow, what asses. If I were their parents I would have already kicked those dicks out and started on new children in the false hope that maybe I'd get a child with more than half a brain.

I keep digressing-- it's a rant bonanza in my head.  

[Sammie of Spades]

This horrible illiteracy and lack of proper grammar irritates me. I am in the 10th grade. I was in Higher Level Literature classes, but then this year I moved out of them because I was doing way too much work for no reason. Well now I'm in Standard Level 11th grade Literture, and I cannot believe how the people in there cannot understand what they are reading! It's simple fun stories. For instance, we're in the middle of Huck Finn. It's not a bad book, in fact I would enjoy it if I took out time from my other work to read it stare but I mean, They have 1 more year of school left before they move on to college! I know the book doesn't have perfect grammar, but it was written that way for a reason. It's not horrible grammar either. I see worse on the actual classwork. Which in turn, drives me nuts. I guess there could be alot to blame for 17 and 18 year olds not being able to speak proper english, but we have school systems, we get the basics, we can figure it out by simply picking up a book! I guess my answer isn't on the poll. I say it's personal responsibility. How dumb do you have to be to be allowed to off the blame from yourself?  

[-Non[Stop]Disco-]

I would lay the blame at a few select things.
Personal choice: Resulting on how one was raised.
This is a pretty straight forward. Some families encourage daily reading and writing practice, as well as some schools.

The Internet
And no, I don't just mean "text-talk"
I work part-time as a graphic designer, and I work on a few websites.
HTML code drives me insane, sometimes to the point where I can't focus on anything more than

Quote:

Yeah. I've had those days.

As well. Search bars. The search bars like Google, Yahoo, MSN. They all admit words from the search you've submitted. If it's ok to drop a word or two there, why not everwhere else too.

Then, yes. Text talk from messenger services, forums, chat rooms, online games. All that jazz.

Last point from me
Pop Culture gonk
Children and young teenagers are given the impression that, yes, "it's ok to talk like a complete moron, because I can do it."
Even George Bush makes up words. That scares me. A lot.

That's all I can think of for now.  

[Bladeglory]

While I am certainly appaled at how America talks, we must remember that only a short while ago, literacy was entirely reserved for those of noble lineage and vast wealth. We are actually at one of the pinacles of literacy... Of course, that dosn't mean we should fall farther... stare

I think that it will eventually correct itself, but we should try to encourage proper spelling anyway. I also think that it is majorly a lack of making literacy a priority that has let us drop so far.