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So is peer validation to blame?

That makes so much sense. Also another thing is that Americans have added so many words into normal English that it is hard to tell what should be there (I am talking about all those 'like's and 'you know's). Quite a few people I know correct me for not using them. Also teachers don't correct that, they should but they don't.

I stand on the whole 'laziness' factor one hundred percent. One of my closest friends has developed a completely original language verging on leet due to being lazy. The sad part is that I and quite a few others understand it without much difficulty. If people are committed enough to the concept of getting away with shoddy typing, they will.

All the free texting that cell phone companies are ofering now isn't helping.

But we have some people in this guild who are lazy and do just fine. :/

1) Thank you for the other bracket.

2) I think that the source of all word problems starts with, to quote the poll, "Peer validation." It always starts with one person thinking it's cool, then in order for to fit in, another person copies it, and so on and so forth. It happens all the time and, frankly, I'm tired of it. People need to learn to go their own way.

You are free to disagree. wink

Along those lines... here's something I blogged the other day:


Several thoughts on the future of the written word:

Our society is becoming less and less likely to turn to reading to gather information. For example, on the internet, the prevalence of video news clips online as well as Youtube and video blogs seems to indicate a growing trend in audio/visual format versus text information sharing. Yes, it’s faster, but I fear it also caters to those who choose or prefer to get their information in 3 minute sound bytes rather than in depth observations.

Admittedly, the new video learning systems (especially with school and such) have been a boon to students, making it easier to learn, especially for people with learning disabilities who may have had severe difficulties reading from texts. However, I find that for those who have no difficulty reading it seems to make for laziness, or at least apathy, when it comes to learning.

It is making everyone a generalist but maybe not in a good way. I wonder if in twenty years if the following societal changes will occur:

- Simplified English will be used (no big words that one has to look up, it’d take too much time). I’m guessing that there won’t be as many synonyms for words as well as non-specialized language to make things easier to parse in a shorter amount of time.

- Classical textbooks will change (the coming generations won’t have the patience or the training to read for more than fifteen minutes, especially when the information can be compressed into video format). I suspect this might take longer due to the fact that the school system always seems to be about 20 years behind the curve as it is now.

- Non-television advertisements will be in video form (this is already happening, many advertisements and pop-ups online are animated and even billboards are beginning to do this with increasing frequency). This makes me wonder just quickly we will completely develop the ability to ignore moving, flashing advertisements, and what this will do to our vision. Flashy, moving advertisements catch our attention because they’re moving. Therefore, I wonder if we will develop selective sight in the same way we develop selective hearing (e.g. how we can sleep with all the noises around us).

- I don’t think I even need to point out how television and movies are supplanting books. However one side effect of this that has been recently mentioned by other people (Cory Doctorow, for one) is that magazines and such will increasingly lose their revenue. Short stories are already struggling as it is, with a current trend toward e-zines trying to re-capture the audience that they lost.

- Finally it seems to me as if people will be less challenged to think for themselves, if only because of the innate nature of each format. With reading, one is forced to parse the words and think about them in order to get anything out of the activity. However, television and video media merely tells you what you need to think about, rather than forcing you to figure it out for yourself. In other words, with reading you need to think, with video formats, you don’t. I can make all the analogies to brain atrophy that there are, but the point remains the same, we won’t be challenging ourselves as much and thinking for without the aid of a flashing screen directing our thoughts.

All that said, then, it seems to me as if the future is pretty grim. At least for us ready and writey-types. That is, unless we want to write scripts for toothpaste advertisements.

I, for one, have never understood how it's easier to type in chatspeek as opposed to typing in ordinary words. And yes, I spelled chatspeek with two e's.

I blame genetics.