Internet and Grammar

[jtwhite]

I wrote this on my forums but I want to see what the x10 community thinks .

I notice every day people throw out basic grammar when speaking on public forums and comment systems. I'm not bashing "lol" and "idk" type stuff. I mean when you see a sentence that makes no sense whatsoever because no punctuation was used and you have to read it about three times to understand what it's saying.

Do you believe it's okay to just let it go or should people make an attempt to make the Internet a better place by using proper English? Do you believe that the Internet destroys grammar standards among its users? Do you think it will continue?


My opinion.

I do believe that the Internet causes harm to writing and grammatical standards. The Internet was meant to be a home for lots of information. You can't learn much from a poor article can you? I believe that people should make an attempt and take that small half a second to throw a comma in there, maybe even capitalize names and places. I do believe the mistreatment of grammar will continue and get worse.

 

[zen-r]

The occasional spelling mistake or typo is understandable & acceptable (even though, in this day & age everyone should be able to run a spell checker in their browser before they post.)

However, I hate it when people blatantly don't bother to punctuate, spell correctly, separate sentences with full-stops & capital letters, or even to break up large blocks of text with a new paragraph. This is just laziness & I see it as both selfish & actually quite disrespectful of them.

To my mind, by them posting like that, they are actually saying that the only thing that matters to them is saving themselves a couple of seconds. They don't care about all the time that will subsequently be wasted for me & for everyone else who has to read their post over & over in order to try & make sense of it.

I often feel that if they want to show so little respect for me like that, then why should I bother to try to read their post, & am often tempted to just skip it & move on to someone else's. :happysad:

 

[Divinorum]

I hate it when people use "&" instead of "and," it quite bugs me so.

 

[jtwhite]

The "&" doesn't bother me, I just notice it and prefer to use "and." I'm not sure there'll be much of a point against regular English. I was really wanting to debate with people about it.

 

[Sharky]

If you think you've seen bad spelling, punctuation, and grammar, why haven't you even mentioned so called 'txt spk'? There's nothing more 'disrespectful' towards the English language than removing all vowels for no reason. In a text message, it's understandable, as you're limited to 160 characters per message, and the cartel have somehow managed to justify it costing more per character than it costs NASA to send stuff out in to space.

Plus, if you think it's bad on forums and web discussion groups, some of you need to pay a visit to IRC: the home of poor spelling, and complete lack of cohesion.

The question is: who is to blame for this? Schools? Parents? The internet itself? The problem is that the current younger generations are being brought up to consider this awful abomination to be normal. Amongst other issues that would fill a whole week of rambling, the inability to form a cohesive sentence with proper spelling and grammar is going to seriously impair the chances of success in a future career.

In short: we're doomed.

 

[naerey]

Internet users are to be blamed, those who make these spelling mistakes (not talking to be a grammar nazi, but wen ppl strt 2 tlk laik dis I think you're fully right to bash them ), and those who don't correct them!
If guys make mistakes and nobody tells them how to do it right, or what they're doing is wrong, they'll keep on doing it, and others will take them as an example.

So please people! Do school these internet terrorists!

Here's a fav'rite quote of mine(from bash.org)

Capitalization is the difference between "I had to help my uncle Jack off a horse.." and "I had to help my uncle jack off a horse.."

 

[zen-r]

I'd love to point you all in the direction of someone's posts here, which used to drive me mad with their solid "wall of words", all in 1 sentence, with typos galore!

I won't mention any names though, because to do so would be unfair. Let's just say that they got banned recently (for other "crimes") & so we are now likely to be spared their literary masterpieces for a while!

 

[adamparkzer]

I wrote this on my forums but I want to see what the x10 community thinks .

I responded to this question on your forums, and this is what I wrote :

Because I type so fast (averaging around 134 words per minute standard, and about 177 words per minute when I'm instant messaging), I don't find it a hassle to capitalize, punctuate, or properly spell anything I write. Actually, when I try to write in "1337 SP33K" (or whatever that abbreviation garbage is), it takes me ten times longer than when I write in full words.

I find it disturbing that people are so lazy as to not be able to type out all their words. I think the only abbreviation I use is "lol"; instead of "idk," I use "I dunno." When I try to read abbreviations or acronyms, I get bothered because sometimes I have to Google the meaning of some acronyms. Basically "treating others the way you wish to be treated," I type out everything I wish to say because I'd rather have a leisurely conversation (either through forums or instant messaging) and don't want to unnecessarily bother the other person.

I now treat "1337 SP33K"ing people as worthless internet users. I hate internet memes (and I cannot stand Mudkips), and I have disrespect for people who don't have the proper form to maintain a communicable and respectable image on the internet; you never know if they're like that in real life too.

 

[Sharky]

I average about 100WPM with capitalisation, punctuation, grammar, and ... paragraph breaks, unless you count that as punctuation. Maybe you should slow down just a little.

I find that it not only takes me longer to read so called 'txt spk', but also significantly longer to write it. So I don't. Even in text messages, I use the predictive dictionary, and more often than not, my messages span multiple 'messages'. I don't care, though: I pay £10/month for 300 mins and text messages, and get nowhere near using either! (still cheaper than PAYG)

What's a Mudkip? Google offers conflicting results, most of which originate around Pokémon, a CHILDREN'S television show.

 

[jmcgowan]

To act as counterpoint here (even though I try hard to use proper english, even online) there are many people on the internet who speak English as a second language. For them, it may seem like they're botching the language because they're being lazy or disrespectful (or just young) but in reality it's just because they are learning the language. About 15 years ago when I was first screwing around with the internet (just writing that makes me feel old...) I was shocked at how many people I was meeting from other countries, some of whom wrote great English, and some of whom wrote terrible English because they were still learning the language.

 

[Smith6612]

For my part of this topic, the basic grammar stuff such as "lol" and "rofl" I'll use from time to time in posts, but I use fairly frequently during Instant Messaging chats. Take a look at any post I make on the internet, and you'll see I try to avoid going all "1337sp33k" in my posts or cutting corners, using proper grammar. I feel as though grammar even on the internet is fairly important. If I didn't feel this way, I'd not be using it. Shows some intelligence.

 

[adamparkzer]

What's a Mudkip? Google offers conflicting results, most of which originate around Pokémon, a CHILDREN'S television show.

A Mudkip is, in fact, a Pokémon. Before idiotic internet users, Mudkip was an innocent starter Pokémon in the Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald editions. But for some reason, internet users decided to target it and make stupid jokes about it, such as "i herd u liek mudkipz" and retarded crap like that. Now, every time I'm reminded of Mudkips, I get annoyed because of what stupid people on the internet do with perfectly normal topics.

 

[Smith6612]

A Mudkip is, in fact, a Pokémon. Before idiotic internet users, Mudkip was an innocent starter Pokémon in the Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald editions. But for some reason, internet users decided to target it and make stupid jokes about it, such as "i herd u liek mudkipz" and retarded crap like that. Now, every time I'm reminded of Mudkips, I get annoyed because of what stupid people on the internet do with perfectly normal topics.

This goes perfectly with this topic...

"SO I HEARD YOU LEIK MUDKEIPS!"

 

[jtwhite]

To act as counterpoint here (even though I try hard to use proper english, even online) there are many people on the internet who speak English as a second language. For them, it may seem like they're botching the language because they're being lazy or disrespectful (or just young) but in reality it's just because they are learning the language. About 15 years ago when I was first screwing around with the internet (just writing that makes me feel old...) I was shocked at how many people I was meeting from other countries, some of whom wrote great English, and some of whom wrote terrible English because they were still learning the language.

This gives even more reason for us who can use correct grammar to do so. If people learning the language see these mistakes, they're more likely to reproduce them. If all they see if correct grammar, they will learn the language better and have an overall better understanding.

 

[sdnoble]

Language evolves like anything else at the mercy of human dynamics. It makes sense that the speed of its evolution will match its frequency of use and exchange.

I don't know the figures but I'd be surprised if there is not several million times more communication exchange now than compared to the first half of the 20th century. Look at how any spoken or written language changed between 1900 and 1950, and congratulate us all for managing to maintain any similarlty between how we write and speak now copared to 10 years ago (or even last year).

While I am as bothered as the next guy when confronted with the abrievated and over simplified cyberspeak of today's youth, I believe it is more important to achieve a standard than to argue about which standard to achieve.

The internet (and mobile phones) have sealed the fate of our language as we know it (regardless of which toungue you are reading this in). I just hope the kids are switched on enough to all get the same idea so I don't have to keep relearning the translation.

 

[Divinorum]

The "&" doesn't bother me, I just notice it and prefer to use "and." I'm not sure there'll be much of a point against regular English. I was really wanting to debate with people about it.

I was just being sarcastic if you couldn't tell.

Plus, if you think it's bad on forums and web discussion groups, some of you need to pay a visit to IRC: the home of poor spelling, and complete lack of cohesion.

That happened to me too on IRC, then I stopped going to where all the retards are.

If you look for the right places, you'll find places that meet your standards of intelligence.

 

[naerey]

That happened to me too on IRC, then I stopped going to where all the retards are.

If you look for the right places, you'll find places that meet your standards of intelligence.

I've been hanging around IRC quite a lot, and I've never found terrible channels full of l33t sp34krz, probably because they are rare on freenode.net ? Though I've seen channel admins kick people because of inappropriate writing and punctuation
I do perfectly agree with them.

English as a second language? So? Don't tell me they have no punctuation/capitalization in your language :|

English is my third language. ¬.¬

 

[Sharky]

^ A double negative? Are you sure English isn't your first language? Btw, congratulations, your comprehension of English far exceeds that of many of my fellow ex-students at university (in England).

 

[taifunbrowser]

Just my input, but I've been recently working on just the opposite: a few users on my site 'lol wut' right after I post anything with a large wordcount. (They say it's really hard to understand what I'm posting.)

Simplify your sentences. Be brief.

 

[jtwhite]

Well if they don't want to read anything with a large word count, they're probably lazy and don't want to have a conversation with any level of intellect.