Welcome to Gaia! ::

Thank goodness. I've run into far too many people that see your age, and immediately compare you to the rest of your generation.

Now back on topic, It's ironic that everyone is blaming illiteracy on the internet, and that is the very grounds in which we are discussing it. People like us are why I think the internet is not what causes this; on the contrary, it increases typing skills, spelling in general, and allows for meeting others with the same principles.

Point taken, but I'd add that Word documents auto-edit your text to make it correct, so that builds BAD habits, whereas forums don't, so you have to type and punctuate it out yourself, which builds GOOD habits.

I don't mean that the Internet is soley responsible of course. It's just a medium. It reflects as much as it causes. However, remember the old maxim: "Monkey see, monkey do". In other words, one illiterate gets on a message board and sees other illiterate "txt tlk", so they think that's how people act when they're online. That was how I was. I simply thought that's how everyone typed online, only to realize it was just the stupid who did so.

I'll admit, I'm lazy and do use the spell checker in Word, but I can see how that would lead to lazy habits. Perhaps we can just blame Word's spell checker for the loss of literacy. Just wrap it up neatly in a packet. ninja

@Lt_Brookman: My dad often says that he was born too late also. He claims he never caught up with the Industrial Revolution. You're not alone there. 4laugh

The majority of Neopets members = NOOBZ LOLZ!1!1one!11!shift!1!1!

Neopets was "teh sux0rz". I played it for a little while, but it was a big chore. I had to feed those pets every day and the food cost so damn much. I never went on the boards. From what I understand, I wasn't missing much. I read that they censored any words that are even remotely connected with sex, like "hot" and "sucks". Talk about being ultra-conservative.

I say that it can be a multitude of things... I mean I voted for laziness because I think that that's truely the biggest reason, however I also think that some people are just ******** stupid. Then you get the people who say "I type over 200 words per minute and I don'r ((hehe, just had to add in the "r")) ever read what I type." So they are either lying to cover their stupid mistakes or they are really just that lazy that they can't read over what they wrote and correct a "t" instead of an "r" that they put down. Plus, when I know what I am going to type I type pretty damn fast and hardly ever mess up and if I do then I can catch it 90% of the time.

Yes I can testify to that. When I was playing UT2004, you wouldn't believe all the bad spelling and grammar that popped up on the screen. I can understand it though, as it's rather hard to type and frag at the same time. If one stops and tries to type properly, one gets one's a** handed to oneself. razz

Today's kids probably won't be great minds who come up with anything because everything's handed to them. People are happy with mediocrity I guess. Where are the personal jetpacks and moving sidewalks that people imagined would be part of 21st century life 50 years ago? They haven't been invented because we're happy with mediocrity. *sighs*

I guess my skills just aren't there yet. I was a mediocre player at best.