For me, its the overuse of LOL. "I plan on buying the new iPhone but I sold my old one for almost the same price lol so now I get a new one for hardly anymore money lol."
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Social Media/Forum Pet Peeves
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I hate being reported for merely being rude, abrasive, insulting, and foul-mouthed. I mean, grow another layer of skin for heaven’s sake.
On the bright side Steve and I have become good friends and exchange Christmas cards.
On the bright side Steve and I have become good friends and exchange Christmas cards.
Excellent: A Curmudgeon's Charter: May I join?
And yes, I must say that I am in complete agreement with you about the ubiquitous use of "lol".
it mite be atorcious speling or teh frqnt us f abbrevs tht mt nt b obvi 2 cazh rdrs although it also annoys me when theirs no punctuation and you have to guess where sentence breaks are supposed to be which istn always cleaer when the whole post is written in stream of conciousness style and is especially hard to follow if the person making the post has some mac problem their describing and they hope someone can help but who the hell can follow the tortured writing and meandering style even though they provide some details like its a mbp 10 which i guess means macbook pro 2010 but about half the time well maybe a quarter but getting close to half the model they say they have isnt actually a model for that year because althgough they bought it in 2010 it was actually a 2009 model but they didn't realize it at the time because they werent paying attention that the place they bought it from was closing out old inventory and of course apple doesnt put year labels on the boxes so thats confusing as hell just like this post up to this point although i had to force myself to not correct some typos and aoivd punctuation like aprostophes or commans or even extra spaces that might be a cluse to sentence breaks anyway if youve made it this far i have to say thanks and plzz plzz plzz help me because im despearate and have no idea where else to go
thnaks in advance
thnaks in advance
I haven't darkened the door of an educational establishment for the best part of a decade (apart from giving an annual guest lecture and occasional additional guest lecture), but I do recall, as I approached the latter part of my teaching career, being instructed by my head of dept not to correct their grammar, syntax, spelling, (often atrocious) in term papers, or take issue with the self-indulgent silliness of stream of consciousness essays. "You are teaching them politics (and history), not English," he said.
My bleats by way of reply that the essays were incomprehensible, and that written English was supposed to be able to meet a standard whereby it was an agreed form of communication and that it was not unreasonable to assume that they should be able to express themselves clearly (even when writing about politics or history) fell on fairly deaf ears.
So, yes. I agree with you.
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May I add the incredible number of duplicate threads. Especially at this time of year! Why do people always feel compelled to add "yes, me too" to a thread...that's hardly contributing. Gahhhhh.
This is the worst! You have actually gotten a twofer here. 1) miserable spelling and punctuation, and 2) THE GREAT WALL of TEXT.
Things have changed. At least in the US. Now you are responsible for cross-curricular teaching, so that no matter what you teach, you have to include maths. No matter what you teach, you much include reading. Honestly, it's becoming a challenge to teach a content area!
This is the worst! You have actually gotten a twofer here. 1) miserable spelling and punctuation, and 2) THE GREAT WALL of TEXT.
Things have changed. At least in the US. Now you are responsible for cross-curricular teaching, so that no matter what you teach, you have to include maths. No matter what you teach, you much include reading. Honestly, it's becoming a challenge to teach a content area!
I can become conflicted over this topic without much effort. I can still get stuck back at when one of my kin taught English composition to first year uni students, and shared some of their papers with me while marking them one night. They were generally at about what I would have expected from 11 year old children. I was shocked. These were kids from both the local area and NYC.
That was about 25 years ago. But back then I thought kids at least had a handle on what was going on in the world, that they understood a little math and some science, understood how legislation got passed (duh, compromise), knew the difference between the AP wires on foreign affairs (page 7, local paper, facts even if boring) and some conspiracy website's version of our relationship to say Germany (exciting, but a crock).
Now the fact that half of them don't buy anything "factual" as weighing more than what T-shirt to put on this morning shocks me more than that they text links for conspiracy sites to their friends without need for grammar and style in such "writing".
So... content or style? I'll take ability to assess content. Teach on!!
I plead guilty to over use of "lol". To me it has become short hand for whole sets of other text strings, e.g. "if you can even f'g believe that" or " in case you think that wasn't enough". Since I write walls of text anyway I figured I was doing y'all a favor there. Reversion, and payback, is forthcoming.
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Funny you guys mentioned the horrible spelling and grammar online nowadays. I just assumed that the world as a whole was becoming less literate, so to speak, because of the internet, texting, etc. But more people are reading and writing then ever before. Texts, blogs, forums, social media, everyone is a writer and a reader now. Unfortunately, many people are not good writers or readers but I you take the good, you take the bad, As the song goes.
Sorry, I don’t even bother to read such bad texts.
As, I’m not American and English isn’t my 1st language. I do make mistakes continually.
But I try to respect the reader as much to my ability.
The above text, uhhmm
But thanks for giving the worst example.
Yes I do find it very encouraging that more people seem to be reading.
What they choose to read in the way of "news" is not so encouraging to me since to me it's pretty clear that a paper like the FT or the Washington Post is far better informed, and informing, than some of the sources that get quoted in partisan political forums online.
But that more people are reading contemporary literature, diverse fiction and nonfiction, and inquiring about older works as well, yes, I find that very encouraging. I don't care too much if their spelling (or apple's infernal autocorrect) makes for less than smooth sailing sometimes in the critiques!
@LizKat, @AlliFlowers and I are all individuals who are (I hazard a guess) a little older than the average age of those who post here, are reasonably well educated, and are people who read, and read, and read a lot, love language and literature and books, so horrible spelling, grammar and syntax are the sort of things we would probably notice.
However, I agree with what @LizKat wrote in her first post in this thread when she wrote about the age (assumed, that is, going on writing skills) of the kids writing essays.
When I started teaching, at third level, in the late 80s, the essays written by an average 18 year old student (or, even a bright student who wasn't fully at ease with putting thoughts on paper) read as though the kid was around 15 and with the language and vocabulary of a 15 year old; now, the vocabulary of a 15 year will suffice to write about the kind of stuff you study at university - adult courses, concepts, themes and so on - it will just read somewhat awkwardly.
In fairness, by the time most of those kids graduated, their vocabulary had caught up with the world they were describing, and was more than adequate to the task set.
However, by the time I left teaching, around a decade ago, I felt that the average 18 year old was starting university with the vocabulary of a 12 year old. And the vocabulary of a 12 year old is not sufficient in that context. There was nothing wrong with their brains or their comprehension - they understood what was happening; it is just that they lacked the ability or means to convey that in a form (and to a standard) of writing appropriate to the task at hand, as their vocabulary was insufficient - or inadequate - to describe, dissect and critically analyse the material that they were supposed to have studied.
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I think it's that the level of discourse all around us in daily life, at least with respect to news and politics, has deteriorated.
Television is a great leveler in that regard. It's one thing to be exposed to say a half hour of a network news reader's use of language. It's another to realize that people often now leave their TVs on all the time, as if the infernal things were just part of the furniture, and so as a nation and planet we are exposed more often to the lowest common denominators of language in use on cable TV, whether it's political commentary or a sitcom.
Are the conversations at least more forthright, down to earth, so more honest?
That's an argument I have heard from some quarters, i.e., well we're not all William F. Buckley fans looking for people who harangue us in paragraphs that may as well have come straight out of 19th century philosophy texts.
Some us claim we just want to hear a person call a spade a spade instead of "a tool with a sharp-edged, typically rectangular, metal blade and a long handle." Everyone knows what a spade is [but... actually, not everyone does]. The thing is, there may be a price for acting on that desire to have everything kept simple.
Maybe the political conversations of today's TV fare are not more honest, even if they are often less formal and so easier to hear and participate in. We're all certainly more marketed to. We get told stuff before we are curious enough to ask, sometimes. We get told there's A or there's B, take your pick, I recommend B. Well... there could maybe be a C... but I may not have time to think about that just now. Later on all I remember is someone said take plan B?
There are many more marketers out there, trying to speak as if they were just people like you or me. They are killing us softly in words we understand, or killing us with a deceptively simple-looking curveball, take your pick.
Not all of us have been taught that it's up to us to explore whether or not what is being sold to us is a bill of goods or the real deal. Shiny stuff... bling... is not just stuff of the material realm. It's also glittery ideas with nothing behind them. These can be ideas about what's fun to wear, what's cool to buy, what's hip to be interested in, which pols to believe, which movie genres are passé.
At some point a lot of us may have lost track of the idea that developing one's interests, principles, beliefs into an integrated self, and keeping up with pop culture, are two different things. Or we kept hold of that for ourselves, but forgot to pass on to our kids that it's important to sort things out for themselves while making that distinction.
The thing to remember about marketers is that the last thing on their mind is sharing the secrets of how to apply critical thinking to what one hears or reads. They keep things pretty simple, and leave nuance out of it. None of that can end up expanding a person's grasp of complex thought and the vocabulary that may accompany it.
So now half the time we all sound like the most challenging thing we've ever read is the fine print on how simple it is to open a childproof bottle of vitamins. How then to answer a kid's question about some political issue of the day, or encourage him or her to skip a news aggregation site in favor of a trial subscription to a particular newspaper or magazine?
We've bought that "keeping it simple" bill of goods for sure. Except it's maybe more like keeping us simple. I'm not sure who created that platform, but it's been a massive hit all around the world, seems to me. Sure there's no need to make things more complicated than they are. There's no reason to pretend everything's as simple as a binary choice either.
Still time to make a u-turn and maybe it's even happening as I write this post. I'm not in the trenches of education these days and I was only ever on the sidelines with friends who were academics.
Excellent post.
But, the thing is, American writing used to be brilliant.
To my mind, 19th century American writing (designed for and intended to reach a mass - and literate - (not necessarily exceptionally educated, but highly literate) audience and readership) was without peer; it was a clean, clear, plain, elegant, completely comprehensible yet stylish prose, shorn of some of the ornate, obscure and self-indulgent rubbish one found in British English, and is something to be proud of.
At university, I hugged two superb textbooks (American) on Renaissance and Reformation Europe that a male friend (a few years older) had given to me as a gift before he graduated while I was in first year - as they were far better, and more clearly written, and were more interesting, and intelligently thoughtful, than some of the more dogmatic and (frankly, difficult) and often stuffy and self-important, pompous texts that were on the standard reading lists at that time.
What appals me is that the US used to be home to some of the best journalism and best both serious and popular writing on the planet for the best part of 100 plus years (1850-1950?, even 1820-1970?) - there is a reason the character of Oscar Madison was a sports journalist - (people such as Pulitzer, Jack London, Hawthorne, Steinbeck, William L Shirer, etc. set a standard for excellence in writing modern English) and offered an example of how English could and should be used to convey complex stories, be they fact, fiction or journalism.
And well, now, unfortunately, it is not an example I would look to.
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My mouse is worn from liking all these comments. Seriously though the standard of literacy has fallen and it is a problem that started well before Twitter. Is it modern mass media? Not just the internet but the culmination of radio, TV as well? Edit: "warn" for "worn"? ugh
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C. all of the above.
- People who just learned what logical fallacies are and (sometimes incorrectly) point them out in discourse by simply saying the fallacy's name. (E.g. responding "AD HOMINEM!!1!!" to "Only an idiot would think…")
- Ending a post with a single emotive word. (E.g. "… Sad." "… Liar!")
- EDIT: +1 posts. Why not just up-vote or explain why you like a post?
- Last one is MR-specific: purporting to know what Apple's late CEO would never allow. If we can pretend to read minds, there's no reason to provide balanced logical criticism; you can always say something isn't what someone else thinks it should be. It's a pet peeve that's impelled me to create this stock image response:
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Facebook as a whole was my pet peeve. The level of negativity is more than I care to see on a day to day basis.
I just have still have it in the same way I still have an old AOL email address.
Instagram is pretty much my only form of social media and I get to just look at the pictures I like to look at.
I just have still have it in the same way I still have an old AOL email address.
Instagram is pretty much my only form of social media and I get to just look at the pictures I like to look at.
Good point...and the healing power of a period or two is magical!
But if they occur too frequently, it can be a sign of uterine polyps. Be aware.
I tend to keep away from most social media (only Twitter which was a university requirement). Cannot stand that Twitter doesn't have an edit button for posts.
Sadly, I've noticed the more time I spend online, the worse my spelling and grammar are. I omit words sometimes, and do not even notice. Not a fan of that. Also the rampant negativity drives me up a tree.
I can be ridiculously cranky at Apple these past few years, but I am trying very hard not to be perpetually negative about them especially in light of real life things going on. I need to stop reading the Apple brass doublespeak articles here and elsewhere.
So I agree with the previous posts' points on grammar etc., and add negativity to that because I wish to be more aware of both these things in my own forum postings (I generally it light on Twitter).
Sadly, I've noticed the more time I spend online, the worse my spelling and grammar are. I omit words sometimes, and do not even notice. Not a fan of that. Also the rampant negativity drives me up a tree.
I can be ridiculously cranky at Apple these past few years, but I am trying very hard not to be perpetually negative about them especially in light of real life things going on. I need to stop reading the Apple brass doublespeak articles here and elsewhere.
So I agree with the previous posts' points on grammar etc., and add negativity to that because I wish to be more aware of both these things in my own forum postings (I generally it light on Twitter).
LOL
In social media, I really dislike the amount of hatred being poured out on people. I see this mostly related to the political realm. It doesn't matter side of the fence you count yourself, people on both side post the most vile things in facebook. This is probably the biggest reason why I walked away from FB.
Forums. The iPhone forum this time of year, it won't calm down for quite some time, because no doubt there will be some sort of defect perceived or real that will get a -gate moniker and will spread like wildfire.
My pet peeve is when people join a forum where certain types of behaviour are not tolerated then complain when they are pulled up for exhibiting those types of behaviour.
My pet peeve is when people join a forum where certain types of behaviour are not tolerated then complain when they are pulled up for exhibiting those types of behaviour.
Haha. I recommend spf 99!
That book cover though. You just made my day. Thank you. I promise not to +1 because I do not do that, if I could give you more likes you’d have them.