The Loss of Literacy in Modern America

[Zealot of Insanity]

Ebony the Peacian Vampire

Sexy lil Soc

Are We Dead Yet

Or maybe people are just too ******** lazy to type out full words, and marvel at the ingenius short forms that 12-year-old children invented?
Maybe they just don't value time.
Who cares?
What matters is that at least SOME of us can spell.

...Have you not yet realized that there are at least three or four literate twelve-year-olds in this guild, myself included?
It really ticks me off when people call netspeak "11-year-old-IMer-ese" and crap like that. If you take the time to look, you'll notice that it's usually teenagers that use netspeak[I'm not saying that ALL teens use netspeak, I'm just pointing out that it's usually them that think saying "omg lol ur so dum" makes them sound cool. Most of the younger kids just can't spell very well yet].

Next time you should do some freaking research before you stereotype.

[[I've had a guy think that I was 25 once. <_< And when I told him I was twelve, he was all "Omfg if ur lying u can go strayt 2 hel!11one111four!1111"]]

I know that feeling. stare I hate being pushed out of ED threads, disrespected, mocked, made a fool of, rediculed, and INSULTED because of my age! I am thirteen damn years old. Am I supposed to be watching chick flicks and reality shows and doing my nails and braiding my girlfriends' hair? Yeah. I actually am. But I chose to debate, to write, to read non-fiction and fiction, and to be literate for the rest of my natural born life. And anyone who can't respect me, who can't accept me, who can't adore this lovely little Peacian, can go ******** their moms. 4laugh

Ohhh. Very nice. I agree with you all the way. biggrin  

[Zealot of Insanity]

But seriously, I feel as if I'm cooping myself into literate guilds only! Unlike before, I rarely talk to any nonliterate now, and I think it's spreading into my real life as well... I have to thank DarkElf27 for this transformation, and frankly, I feel that this lifestyle is much better than before.  

[Shrocomemos]

I feel that it's pure laziness that causes illiteracy. All my friends are in honors and can spell fairly well, but when they're on a website, they're n00bs! I was yelling at my friend a while ago because I was on a site talking to a literate and she went on and talked to him too. She refused to type out her words and she was embarrassing me. Eventually I yelled at her in an IM saying that no one like n00bs, but she replied with that it was faster and fun to be a n00b. Honestly, people these days...

The one thing that really bugs me is when people refuse to capitalize their goddamn 'I's. Would it freaking kill them to extend their finger and hold down the shift key while hitting the 'i' key?! No, it wouldn't! And then they're the ones severly overusing exclamation points which you have to hold down the shift key for. So it's OBVIOUSLY not too much effort for them. Damn asses. mad [/mini-rant]

So, like I said, it's primarily laziness. There are some people that try to be literate, but simply can't spell many words, but I don't get on their cases for that. I can tell that they're trying and I can't even spell some words sometimes. (Like capitalize. I hope that's even right.)

 

[Zealot of Insanity]

Hey. Not cool. I'm lazy. evil  

[Shrocomemos]

So am I. I just don't want to look like an idiot.
You should see how many teachers have called me lazy.

 

[Zealot of Insanity]

Shrocomemos

So am I. I just don't want to look like an idiot.
You should see how many teachers have called me lazy.

Haha! Ditto here as well! Teammates during group projects call me lazy because I don't submit my work, but in the end, I have a nicely polished piece of work for them.  

[Shrocomemos]

metalmalzan

Shrocomemos

So am I. I just don't want to look like an idiot.
You should see how many teachers have called me lazy.

Haha! Ditto here as well! Teammates during group projects call me lazy because I don't submit my work, but in the end, I have a nicely polished piece of work for them.

All my teachers since third grade have called me lazy. whee It's fun.

I usually fool around during group projects, but I always get the work done. I'm also with my friends most of the time so we all don't do the work and finish it at the library or something. And then we finish either early or on time and get a good grade.

 

[SilverMaple]

I hate it when people use "txt tlk" in the towns... It just looks so stupid to see a tiny little person running around saying: "Lyk, OMG!!!!11 lolz u r sooooo funny, I ttly <3 u!!!!1one" O_o For goodness sake, if I saw a person in real life running around talking like that, I would... um... Well, I don't know what I'd do, but it won't be pretty! >_<  

[lola_siannodel]

Shinobi 1977

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 think it's a mixture of things, now please read on, and you will hear my little rant on what's wrong today.

Television deffinately has something to do with it. Now, I don't think it's evil, and I watch alot of TV, but not as much as some people, and at least I read along with it. Now, TV has done alot of good things for me. For example, if it wasn't for tv, I would have never discovered my love for drawing anime, for I would have never been introduced to it. I got some good out of it. But, the problem is, most people are far to influenced by what they see and hear. I am smarter than to do stuff like this, and in a sence it is the kid's own fault, but many children have been put into hospitals for immitating their favorate TV shows. Not only that, but TV only reinforces the idea that stupidity is good and lovable, and does tend to make the intelligent seem like geeks. Even though there are stupid people out there who are kind, and very friendly, not all us intelligent people stay inside all day, not all of us are nerds, and not all of us are weak. There are shows that give the impression that certain behavior is ok. Some of these shows also give people the wrong idea on how things are. Life isn't easy or happy, and, at the same point, not everyone smokes pot, or drinks, and when someone acts alittle happier than usual, it doesn't always mean they're high or drunk. At the same point, people's intelligence and the intelligence of the jokes do seem directly connected. You will notcie taht as time goes on, humor seems to get lower and cruder. People are laughing at stupid sexual puns that seem like things a child could think up. Kids, also, haev more knowledge of sex and drugs than they are ready for, and child hood innocence, at least when I was growing up, ended at 6. If even that late. Along with that, they hear these jokes that they don't understand, and laugh because the parents laugh, or a audience laughs, without knowing what it means or why it's funny. Thus, every one has such a similare sence of humor, and whatever the TV says is funny, is funny.

Schools can also be to blame. I will make a quote from a book, Fahrenheit 451, I've read

Beatty

Soon, the schools where turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word 'intellectual' of course, became the swear it deserved to be.

The sad thing is, it's true. Test grades are sharply dropping, and the government does things to these school that they think wil benifit them, but only makes things worse. The test minimums have been dropped sharply, so the schools don't seem like an embressment. Most kids in college prep classes, suposidly somewhat higher classes, can hardly even read. It's not cool to read, or draw, or write. No. You must be like every one else. You must dress in teh latest fasions, watch the hottest shows, all lacking real intelligence or meaning, you must do this you must do that. If you don't, you have no friends. And don't even think about watching this, or reading, or knowing anything about this. Alot of the populare kids don't know this, but it takes balls, in high school, to be different. There are kids getting jumped because they wore their hair weird, or something dumb like that (Not exagorateing, that really happens.) It takes balls for a guy to admit he's gay, it takes guts to read. Those who show any true independence from their peers are rejected and alone, the fair sex not even giving them the time of day. In high school, one's worth is determined by how populare they are. Cliqs are a huge problem, and there are people, like me, that hardly have one because they're are so few people who have the balls to acctualy take part. People who don't really care about what every one else in teh school are wearing, who don't care what some kid who your never going to see after graduating, except at high school reunions, thinks about a certain show, and I don't care if every one thinks I'm a freak. I'm one of those people, who, no matter what I do, will always be a freak, because of one thing I did wrong in kindergarden. Some weird thing I did in first grade. How I dressed in 6th. When one reads, that person is seen as weird. Wheather it's jealousy, veiws based on how TV potrays us, or teh fact that most of the popluare kids can't, and thus you aren't clones of them, I have no idea.

I seriously agree with Ray Bradbury, that soon, reading will even go to the extent fo being a crime, and violence and manslaughter will be seen as less evil than reading a poem. Kids will run people down for kicks, and overdosage will become so common, that it is looked as like an every day thing. I mean, some of the things he described do exist, like "Sea-shell headphones" and the TVs he described are eerily similare to huge, plasma screen TVs that every one either has, or wants. The way Beatty described how the world came to be the way it was seems like things that have happened. And his time came in the 50's, maybe 60's. It will probobly happen later than he first predicted, but it'll probobly still happen. Unless, of course, the world was to do something about it, before we start making libarys illegal, and, at one point, blowing oursleves up.  

[lola_siannodel]

And here's alittle added part. people aren't patient. Entertainment has to be instant. I tried reading a ghost story to my friend, and she got impatient because I had to describe things to her. All books will become tapes and movies. Cds, Mp3s, and the such will soon make reading 'Obsoliete', and we will no longer feel we have a use for it any more. Thus, we don't and won't read. People also don't have imagination any more. They can't picture what is going on, while I can picture it very well. Whether it's TV, or just the generation, I don't know. In Shakespeare's plays, at the beginging, he would tell people to imagine horses when they speak of horses and stuff. Mainly beacause they didn't have the props, and couldn't bring in horses. But still, people had an imagination. Now, not to insuklt science, but we're coming up with to many explinations. I mean, peopl no longer ask, because they believe that they know. No one's couriouse about the world around them. No one asks questions, or anything. If somebody does something, we don't wonder why. We just believe them a freak and move on.  

[Mutturqueen]

I think its because people are just lazy. On the internet more than in real life, but I still see people write papers without puncuation.

 

[lola_siannodel]

Mutturqueen

I think its because people are just lazy. On the internet more than in real life, but I still see people write papers without puncuation.

Yes, what happens alot is that people write the way they type. There have been cases of kids using chat-speak on reports and stuff like that.  

[Zealot of Insanity]

I've had this one friend, who decided to scream at me (using Caps) because I corrected his grammar over YIM.  

[Zealot of Insanity]

Quote:

rahmanreaz (5:34:36 PM): MY SPELLING NEVER IMPROVED
rahmanreaz (5:34:41 PM): ITS BEEN THE SAME WAY
rahmanreaz (5:34:50 PM): I CAN CHOOSE TO SHORTEN THINGS

 

[Jill_Frost]

Reinforcement from peers, both local and television icons, give the impression to adults and children alike that being too smart makes you look uncool. Memo from society-> Nerds need not apply; bookworms and their undesirable ilk will be rejected without due process. A few shows and icons attempt to battle this trend, but precious few stand any chance of success.

There are precious few hobbies that treasure or encourage intelligence or creativity; musical instruments, table-top roleplaying, chess, writing groups, and notable others, almost all of which have been classed by peers as the domain of nerds and social undesirables. Society in general is perpetrating its own demise praising the idiotic and ridiculous and by reducing its intelligent members to the rank of persona non grata.