The degradation of the English language on the Internet

[bodyklok]

Personally I don't care, I've made an effort in the past to improve my spelling and grammar for The Escapist but eventually got board and just downloaded an English dictionary for firefox. In all honesty though it's still just the interwub, it's not srs biznes or anything

 

[Brotherofwill]

Does anyone remember that sentence on 4chan that didn't make any sense at all? It was at the point where it boggles your mind trying to read it; I think it might have been on a motivational poster, can't remember the lines but it was beyong hilarious.

 

[Anachronism]

I found out a soft drink was named lol.... This worlds coming to an end.

Oh God no.

I have to say, I completely agree with the OP. Using bad English is acceptable when you're texting, but when you're posting on a forum you have a full keyboard at your fingertips. There's no reason to type out abbreviated versions of what you're saying, because it takes maybe half a second longer to type out the full thing. Occasional spelling mistakes are ok, but when you're using "u" instead of "you", it just gets ridiculous.

"Lol" especially annoys me, mainly because it has been ridiculously overused. Hell, one of my friends says "lol" in basically every text message he sends, even if it has no relevance to the rest of what he's saying. As an example, a typical one will be "What's the homework lol?" It's just stupid. Plus, because it's been so overused, it's basically meaningless now; people can use it in just about any situation, as I just demonstrated.

I am anti-"txt tlk".
I am a supporter of good grammar.
I am a member of the Save the Vowels Movement.
Please, for your sanity and mine: type out your DAMN words.

 

[MiserableOldGit]

Ye Gods that beardy condescending moron goes on. Being verbose for its own sake is pretencious and stupid, and moaning about peoples lack of 'proper English' is, in my opinion, petty and pointless, especially in a world where there is such a plethora of real injustices and problems to rail against. For a start, English is a trly global language, what with our going round trying to make the world English a few years back ( still can't believe we got away with that one...), and the fact that England has become a financial capital and scientific power (after spreading Christianity all about the place we discover Genetics, and get away with that too; hahahahahaa), as such we've had to give up to the world. We may grumble a bit, but we cant expect the lingo to remain preserved in 18th century amber like the french seem to want to do with their language. Different communities will develop different dialects to suit them;classical English will not suffer or be degraded because of this, and one such community with its own dialect is the internet community. People make a classic error that they make with so many issues by applying real world standards to the internet. People write masses of disposable, anecdotal information that is by no means unique, meaning that a great many people trim down the language, particularly in terms of grammar, to make a quicker, more disposable dialect. If you can't understand what someone is writing, request more coherency, or ignore them completely depending on how important you view their opinions. Its like when people complain about trolling or flaming, and suggest that real world standards should apply;they shouldn't- here in internet land if I dont like what you say or cant understand you, I can simply scroll past and ignore- we dont have this luxury in real life, which is why social codes of conduct apply.

If you want to get pissed off at something, how about an issue that is truly eroding civilisation, like those masses of goalpost shifting fat cat wasters that are robbing taxpayers cash to keep their unfeasable businesses running? Or War or poverty and starvation, homelessness etc etc

 

[Booze Zombie]

Nothing pisses me off more than "luz and txt tlk", it just has this essence of laziness and stupidity.

Sigh...

 

[mooncalf]

When people say the language is degrading, I wonder if some of it isn't a backwards rejection of the natural changes in language. I'm sure to some extent that is the case.
For me it boils down to whether or not you can understand what someone's saying, if you can, it doesn't matter, if you can't, it does.

 

[Evilvikingking]

Times change.

This has been talked about for ages and I say the same thing every time - Who speaks Shakespearian anymore?

Art thou talking to myself?

"Art" and "Thou" aren't Shakespearean.

 

[Sebenko]

I always get irritated with my friends as I have to spend several minutes dechiphering their bloody sentences, and it gives me a headache.

Simply don't read it. If it's in chat speak, it's not important.

If it's important, it's worth communicating at least understandably.

 

[Zorg Machine]

the ironic thing is that I learned to spell from the internet.

 

[wordsmith]

LOLBNR

Anyone know what that means? It means Laughing Out Loud, But Not Really. Why don't you know it? Because I just made it up, right here, right now. And yet, if I was one of the users of "txt spk" I probably would have expected you to know.

Why would you laugh out loud if it wasn't funny?

I would guess it's because of the phenomenon in current language that causes people to write "lol" (remember, meaning "Laughing Out Loud") when something even remotely tickles them, either raising them from a blank face to a grin or from a grin to a smile. LOLBNR seems to capture this movement much more aptly than LOL does. Well done DemonGuy, you may have just invented a new abbreviation (which, looking at it, totally circumvents your original point xD)

 

[Xcelsior]

To be honest I find it quite funny how people can really be so bothered about this. In need of a hobby, maybe?

Nine times out of ten it's just as easy to understand what the person is saying, so just give it a rest, please. The people who actually whine about this stuff are a hundred times more annoying than the people their whining about. I want to strangle people when they will quote a post just to fix a spelling mistake, or disregard someone?s opinion because they say 'u' instead of 'you'.

Try to understand that not everyone cares about their spelling or grammar on the internet; and it doesn't make you better than them, it just means they don't care - and to be honest, why should they? It's just the internet, not an English exam.

Sure, if what they're saying is completely incomprehensible, call them out on it. But don't exaggerate; it really doesn't happen a lot with native English speakers.

As much of a dick it makes me sound like to say this, stop. being. so. damn. geeky.

I agree with this, furthermore why does it matter? as long as they get their point across I don't think I care whether they use 'u' or 'you'.

 

[Tech Team FTW!]

Judging by some of my conversations in French, this isn't an English exclusive trend.

At least the French abreviations make sense...

 

[Finrear]

The argument is really damaged more than helped by that video. It's hard to take it as a legitimate criticism when the guy making the argument (in the video) can barely string a coherent sentence together. It's damning indeed when someone that can't use one of the world's richest languages correctly feels the need to criticise other people. I only watched the first minute or so, it's really painful to listen to someone murder a sentence like that.

(Unless it was all some ironic statement, but I doubt it)

 

[chenry]

Newsflash: It is happening in other languages too.

 

[CrustyMedic]

I have been using more short forms lately. Playing a MMO and chatting some times facilitates speedy communication. But, my biggest demise was the use of a spell checker in word processing programs. When typing on an old style typwriter I used to have to pull out a dictionary requiring a conscious effort and a generous use of whiteout, than just clicking away errors.

 

[Kell478]

This is a great Thread!! You are preaching to the choir here!!!! I think it's out of laziness and ignorance that people try to butcher ANY language. Laziness because they don't want to take the time to write/type or even pronounce for that matter, whatever point they are trying to get across. Ignorance because they honestly don't know the correct way to make their point, so instead of trying to figure out or asking someone, they will make a crude attempt. The problem with this is that the majority of the time, the crude attempt is successful! And there you have, the standard is now official lowered and now you and I are now "Ignorant" because we don't know what they are trying to say.
Two other points I would like to make. Literacy in the US in 1809 was HIGHER than it is today. Second, true ignorance is knowing your ignorant and not wanting to do anything about it.

 

[gamma526]

I wish there was completely separate language for the internet

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Newsflash: It is happening in other languages too.

Seconded.

 

[Fingerprint]

One of the main reasons I post on the Escapist is because the English language is used. I hate the whole internet spelling thing - it takes only a few extra seconds to type a legitimate word instead of the gibberish that is all too commonly used on the net. I'm not saying my English is perfect (I'm sure my grammar is wrong half the time) but so long as I proof read before I post and it's legible then thats okay.

Maybe I'm not used to it but I cannot understand what the hell is being said when 'retard spelling' is used. (There was a couple of people who had to help me decipher a - what turned out to be - basic sentence.)

People should, in my opinion, take some pride in their spelling, grammar, etc. as it makes them look more intelligent, like they care about what they are trying to say and I find it gives an argument more strength if it's coherent.
I don't mind it at all when "thanx" or "thru" etc. is used as it can give a light-hearted, more friendly feel to a post but I only like to see them used in moderation.

As a side note I don't even like the internet abbreviations much i.e. lol, rofl, etc. Call me old-fashioned but I just don't see them as being necessary (most of the time anyway).

Having said all that, I'm not someone who grammar-nazis a lot (if at all), but if it the spelling/grammar is too bad or simply non-existent then I will make a comment saying so.

 

[DoctorWhat]

I find it worse when people use "txt spk" or "1337spk" online, and yet, they have impeccable English in conversation. I mean, USE YOUR DAMN WORDS PEOPLE!!! YOU KNOW HOW TO TALK!!! Does it really take that much effort to type in a few extra characters?

I can understand "txt spk" being used for text messages. I mean that's what it's for: allowing you to fit as much content as you can into 140(?) characters. Even so, they are hard to read, and I know some people who use "txt spk" even for the shortest of messages, which I find to be extremely impractical.

Transferring that mindset over to the internet, where there are no character restrictions that anyone will come close to using (save perhaps Twitter), is just plain idiotic!

/rant
Sorry...