The Loss of Literacy in Modern America

[Niccea Majeare]

King of Halla

DarkElf27

*Laughs.* Yeah, I've been on gaia for a year and a half, that helped raise my typing speed considerably. And my junior and senior year.... Hell, I'd be looking towards the future; I'm a sophomore. sweatdrop Try not to judge me by age, though.

I'm going INTO my freshmen year, so I won't xp .
And I type 60 words per minute on an extremely good day.

On the same subject, Gaia has helped me in writing in general. Obviously not in grammar, but I've gotten better at creative writing and thinking up things on the spot thanks to role playing. I know it is weird, but my writing scores have been on the rise since I joined Gaia. I joined when I was a sophomore in high school, and now I'm a sophomore in college.  

[turtles rock]

May I ask you guys a simple question?
Has anyone taken the average age of this guild?

I think that we are, perhaps, the most intellectual group of individuals on Gaia.

Good job, mates!  

[Lerimore]

Niccea Majeare

King of Halla

DarkElf27

*Laughs.* Yeah, I've been on gaia for a year and a half, that helped raise my typing speed considerably. And my junior and senior year.... Hell, I'd be looking towards the future; I'm a sophomore. sweatdrop Try not to judge me by age, though.

I'm going INTO my freshmen year, so I won't xp .
And I type 60 words per minute on an extremely good day.

On the same subject, Gaia has helped me in writing in general. Obviously not in grammar, but I've gotten better at creative writing and thinking up things on the spot thanks to role playing. I know it is weird, but my writing scores have been on the rise since I joined Gaia. I joined when I was a sophomore in high school, and now I'm a sophomore in college.

I have seen my typing speed degrade since leaving eighth grade, but Gaia has brought it close to what it was before. Now entering the ninth grade as a freshman, I just hope I retained enough to make it in Honors Enriched English. Also, to test into it, but that's on a different note.  

[Sylvaniae]

Hmm... I don't even know what my typing speed is at this point. I write tons of things on the computer for my college classes, and I also use Gaia a lot. I don't really measure my speed, but I've been told that I type fast. Perhaps if I didn't edit what I type as I go along, I would type a lot faster, but I can't stand to see errors on the screen.

On another note, there's one thing I can't stand about college. Even though people are quite savvy on the Internet and can do all kinds of things with it, they are complete idiots when it comes to writing a paper. I wonder how some of these people even got admitted into a university. Here I am, slaving over a paper to make it sound like I know what I'm talking about, and then I see someone else's writing riddled with misspellings and grammatical errors. It makes me wonder what this world is coming to.  

[TeeJaye]

Not sure how many of you folks play "Magic: The Gathering" but I thought you would like to see this regardless.

 

[bushy_haired_freak]

I blame lazy teens and society in general! They're too laid back to write out sentences and words, and others let them do this without comment. School just started and we had to argue a point on the board. Many of the girls were using txt tlk! gonk  

[Kitsune Kit Kaguya]

One problem is that people don't read anymore, so they arn't exposed to correct grammar.  

[Rainbow Nebby Chan]

Kitsune Kit Kaguya

One problem is that people don't read anymore, so they aren't exposed to correct grammar.

That's a good point. Many of my friends who use "txt tlk" don't read very much.

I still fail to see how "n u" is the equivalent of "and you?"  

[Eternal Pimp]

Kitsune Kit Kaguya

One problem is that people don't read anymore, so they arn't exposed to correct grammar.

*Insert* are not

Thank you, I full heartedly agree with you. The lack of literacy, as with all times, has been due to the lack of reading. Medieval times, to the present, not reading is the single cause of illiteracy. I believe the internet has no effect on this, barring the ease it is to conduct "txt tlk" now.
To believe that people, and spell check ignore the word "beleave".

Illiteracy
noun
1. ignorance resulting from not reading
2. an inability to read [ant: literacy]

Phantasmically inclined to omphaloskepsis.
-Mr Faceless

 

[ZenPinkBunny]

I find a lot of things really odd about youth of today, even though I could call myself one of them...I'm one of the only few in my group of friends who enjoy reading, and will take several trips a week to the library on campus to pick up more books.

I've not yet met anyone in my age group on campus, except the other pink haired girl like myself, and we swap books back and forth.

I think it's because people are lazy and don't like to take the time to sit down and let their imagination EXIST...why spend time thinking up things, when there's a perfectly good television, or computer, with war games, and zero IQ necessary.  

[saiducky]

Quote:

Kitsune Kit Kaguya Wrote:
One problem is that people don't read anymore, so they arn't exposed to correct grammar.



*Insert* are not

Thank you, I full heartedly agree with you. The lack of literacy, as with all times, has been due to the lack of reading. Medieval times, to the present, not reading is the single cause of illiteracy. I believe the internet has no effect on this, barring the ease it is to conduct "txt tlk" now.
To believe that people, and spell check ignore the word "beleave".

Illiteracy
noun
1. ignorance resulting from not reading
2. an inability to read [ant: literacy]

I agree as well. In my middle school, only about four other people enjoy reading that i know of. Isn't it sad when even in Advanced English only two people like to read? crying  

[Kin no Nabi]

I think one thing was missed of the poll.
'Lack of motivation through the education system'  

[Meghead Taco Supreme]

Though no one has posted here in a while, I'll add my two cents.

I personally think it is a mixture of a bunch of reasons. Since the television was invented, kids have spent less time reading and more time on their butts in front of a box with light. This was the beginning of extreme child laziness. Then computers were invented, and with computers came the internet. When chat rooms and instant messagers were first used by American youth, no one thought to drop all their vowels and make complete fools of themselves. But one day some genius thought to shorten their words into incomprehensible little fragments. This person talked to other people, who most likely assumed that this 'cool' way of talking was the norm. So they started using it, and it spread. It caught on so because it appealed to the laziness that these kids had acquired from watching their telly so much and these children didn't want to appear fools for not using this cool new lingo.

And now we are in this era, where we are forced to make exclusive guilds in order to find people who know grammar.  

[bead_vamp]

People are just so lazy these days. I've had customers at the bookstore where I work turn down our free card because they would rather watch TV than read. I give those people scandalized or disapproving looks. I usually get laughed at, but I've had a few people try to apologize. Those are always amusing.

On a related note, anyone who has not read Lynne Truss's book, Eats, Shoots and Leaves, really should. It's fabulous. I have laughed out loud several times while reading it. At least two of those times were while I was eating lunch in the mall food court. I got some strange looks. lol  

[Bazisan]

I want that book! Everytime I go into a bookstore I look for it. Alas, I have not the money required for such an item. It is a sad time when I have no money with which to buy books. crying

Anyway here is my opinion on this subject:
The school systems of today are greatly lacking in the education department. Take my old high school for example. Math: The foriegn exchange student corrected the teacher on almost everything. We never had homework. History and Geography: Wait? Those were offered at my school? Oh yeah, that was the class where the coaches were supposed to teach and never showed up to the class room. Spanish: The teacher tried to fail a second string freshman football player and almost got fired over it so he decided since the school didn't care about educating the kids, neither did he and turned his class into a free for all. English: "Now, don't worry about spelling and grammar. We're just trying to bring out your creativity and everyone passes this class so don't even worry about your grade." I promise that I am not making this up. Ask any one who attended Turpin School in Oklahoma from 1998 to 2001. They can afirm what I am saying. Our school systems are all about making the kids happy and feel good about themselves (which I think is having the reverse affect) not about educating them so that they can survive in the future.

My high school education makes me very angry and extremely sad. It is a wonder that I know anything at all. I had only one good teacher who actually taught. Mrs. Moore. Everyone hated her but that was because *gasp* eek She actually wanted them to learn something!! Who would have thought that a teacher would actually teach a class? The only other good teacher we had was Mrs. Depew the Typing teacher. She only gave out 3 A's in her 15 year career. No I wasn't one of them. I barely passed her class with a C.

Anyway enough of my ranting....