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Thread: Facebook Users

  1. #1
    Oliphaunt jali's avatar
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    Default Facebook Users

    I love seeing your college photos and hearing about your reunions. It's great to see that your college team won the big game. If I read that you've graduated with a degree, I expect a basic understanding of the language you speak and write daily. I see examples of really annoying word use on Facebook every single day.

    "Me to."

    There not comming their with us."

    "I'll right too him later."

    This is not much of a rant, but ^ irks me more than even "textspeak".
    "U cn c me l8r" seems cute compared to just lazy or dumb writing.
    They weren't singing....they were just honking.
    Glee 2009

  2. #2
    Oliphaunt The Original An Gadaí's avatar
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    Hey I avoid the whole thing that's how much it annoys me.

  3. #3
    Go Phillies !! Cartooniverse's avatar
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    There's no excuse for a lazy tongue. I decry the decline of reasonable grammar. I must be the only person using an Instant Messenger software package who starts with caps and ends with a period.

    Textspeak? Please. Not to sound overly stodgy but enuf is not a word. U is not a word. I do remember in the early days of AOL I had to pay to play but I do not remember paying per letter written. If services charged by the text used, then I can understand the evolution of so-called Textspeak.

    Otherwise, it is just plain lazy writing.

    You. Yes you ! Get off of my lawn !

    Damned kids.



    Cartooniverse
    If you want to kiss the sky, you'd better learn how to kneel.

  4. #4
    Free Exy Cluricaun's avatar
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    Textspeak is the reason I moved to a smartphone with full keyboard, so that it was easier for me to write like, well, the college educated adult that I am when conversing with people. Standards are a good thing to have, so is an education. I have employees who try to get away with that shit in business emails and I'm on the receiving end of outside companies employees sending me things that say "I ask him bout that and he say no u havta do it". There are days that I want to fire everyone in the world.
    Hell, if I didn't do things just because they made me feel a bit ridiculous, I wouldn't have much of a social life. - Santo Rugger.

  5. #5
    Clueless but well-meaning Hatshepsut's avatar
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    I am largely if not entirely in agreement with this view, and even when I SMS I almost always take the time to spell words correctly.

    There is no excuse for leetspeak when sitting at a proper keyboard typing out an email; how much time do you save by typing "u" for "you" or "gr8" for "great"? One or two seconds for the entire email, perhaps? It's surely not worth it, particularly when you factor in how much more illiterate you look to the receiver of your email.

    I am a little more sympathetic to abbreviations in SMSing, however. I don't know to what extent the US has caught up to Asia, but here we text each other constantly about substantive matters. It's not unusual for me to send 20 or 30 fairly detailed SMSs every day and receive as many in return. All of these are being typed out on teensy little keypads that do not lend themselves to high speed typing, while the senders are most likely multiplexing. If someone wants to use universally understood shorthand so they can, for example, more rapidly turn their attention back to the person they are physically with, I will cut them some slack.

    After all, did anyone mind my use of "SMS" in the above paragraphs?

  6. #6
    Oliphaunt dread pirate jimbo's avatar
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    As someone who majored in English and who gets very cranky with the shit spelling and grammar I see daily on things like Facebook and, worse, in work e-mails, I fully endorse this rant and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
    Hell is other people.

  7. #7
    Free Exy Cluricaun's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Hatshepsut View post
    All of these are being typed out on teensy little keypads that do not lend themselves to high speed typing, while the senders are most likely multiplexing.
    No, the use of SMS is of course the correct term and since we're all being wankers about correctness in this thread, I'm all for it.

    Were I you and having to compose actual serious messages on my phone on a regular basis I'd pick up something like this Bluetooth smartphone keyboard, which kind of turns your phone into the world's stupidest laptop but at the same time does solve one very specific, if uncommon problem.
    Hell, if I didn't do things just because they made me feel a bit ridiculous, I wouldn't have much of a social life. - Santo Rugger.

  8. #8
    Aged Turtle Wizard Clothahump's avatar
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    Sad to say, it's not just Facebook folks. It's an indicator of the decline in teaching these days. Grammar and syntax just seem to fall by the wayside as long as one can grunt semi-coherently and get a message across.

  9. #9
    I've had better days, but I don't care! hatesfreedom's avatar
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    Ah, the traditional english major thread. In which english majors, being pathetic and retarded, argue about how the world just isn't conforming to the version of english they were taught. This despite hundred of years of language history which says only, 'this has happened before' while cormac mccarthy laughs his non-grammar writing ass to the bank.
    Last edited by hatesfreedom; 02 Nov 2009 at 10:13 AM.

  10. #10
    Oliphaunt The Original An Gadaí's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Clothahump View post
    Sad to say, it's not just Facebook folks. It's an indicator of the decline in teaching these days. Grammar and syntax just seem to fall by the wayside as long as one can grunt semi-coherently and get a message across.
    I would imagine that literacy is probably higher now than it has ever been. There are less pedants about however perhaps.

    Grammar isn't really thought systematically in Anglophone schooling systems but I can tell you that even amongst university postgraduates (in this country at least) there are people who make grammar and spelling errors, even with the assistance of the venerable spellcheck.

  11. #11
    Oliphaunt Taumpy's avatar
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    Poor grammar and spelling does bother me, but I remind myself that language is just a set of arbitrary rules set up to help us understand each other. As much as:

    Quote Originally posted by jali
    "Me to."

    There not comming their with us."

    "I'll right too him later."
    drives me nuts, I have no issue understanding what the writer intended to convey. If the language is heading in that direction, well, that's how it goes. Seems pointless to stand in the way.

    On that note, this reminds me of an article from Wired that I read the other day: Clive Thompson on the "New Literacy"

  12. #12
    Oliphaunt jali's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Taumpy View post
    Poor grammar and spelling does bother me, but I remind myself that language is just a set of arbitrary rules set up to help us understand each other. As much as:



    drives me nuts, I have no issue understanding what the writer intended to convey. If the language is heading in that direction, well, that's how it goes. Seems pointless to stand in the way.

    On that note, this reminds me of an article from Wired that I read the other day: Clive Thompson on the "New Literacy"
    I subscribe to Wired and I remember that article. (oh - Amazon has a 1 year for $10 offer.) I see your point, but the grads from the 80s and
    90s aren't a part of the new trend in language.
    They weren't singing....they were just honking.
    Glee 2009

  13. #13
    Free Exy Cluricaun's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by hatesfreedom View post
    cormac mccarthy laughs his non-grammar writing ass to the bank.
    Reading Cormac McCarthy like trying to read a regular book after being hit in the head really hard with a brick. Most of it makes sense, but you have to puzzle through some of the fuzzier parts. That's why I'm glad that The Road is being made into a movie, I managed All The Pretty Horses but everyone tells me that The Road is the one to read and I don't know if I'm up to trying another one. I had an easier time with Trainspotting and it's phonetic Scottish than I do with McCarthy.
    Hell, if I didn't do things just because they made me feel a bit ridiculous, I wouldn't have much of a social life. - Santo Rugger.

  14. #14
    Oliphaunt The Original An Gadaí's avatar
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    The Road is a lot more straight forward than All The Pretty Horses. I wish I could speak Spanish though, I'd reread ATPH.

  15. #15
    Free Exy Cluricaun's avatar
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    See, now you're going to tempt me into more perplexing reading by making me want to go get that book from the library tonight.
    Hell, if I didn't do things just because they made me feel a bit ridiculous, I wouldn't have much of a social life. - Santo Rugger.

  16. #16
    Oliphaunt The Original An Gadaí's avatar
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    Get a loan of Blood Meridian too, but read it slowly.

  17. #17
    Oliphaunt dread pirate jimbo's avatar
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    The whole point of writing is to be understood and to communicate. If the methodology used by the writer confounds more than it illustrates, the attempted writing has failed at the most fundamental level.

    Quote Originally posted by hatesfreedom View post
    Ah, the traditional english major thread. In which english majors, being pathetic and retarded, argue about how the world just isn't conforming to the version of english they were taught. This despite hundred of years of language history which says only, 'this has happened before' while cormac mccarthy laughs his non-grammar writing ass to the bank.
    You are an idiotic douche. Hope that was easy enough to comprehend.

  18. #18
    I've had better days, but I don't care! hatesfreedom's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by dread pirate jimbo View post
    You are an idiotic douche. Hope that was easy enough to comprehend.
    u r 2 fat

  19. #19
    Oliphaunt dread pirate jimbo's avatar
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    That is true, but I can lose weight.
    Last edited by dread pirate jimbo; 02 Nov 2009 at 06:30 PM.

  20. #20
    I've had better days, but I don't care! hatesfreedom's avatar
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    bested in my own house, how dare you sir.

  21. #21
    Oliphaunt dread pirate jimbo's avatar
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    Sorry.

  22. #22
    Stegodon Walker in Eternity's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by jali View post
    I love seeing your college photos and hearing about your reunions. It's great to see that your college team won the big game. If I read that you've graduated with a degree, I expect a basic understanding of the language you speak and write daily. I see examples of really annoying word use on Facebook every single day.

    "Me to."

    There not comming their with us."

    "I'll right too him later."

    This is not much of a rant, but ^ irks me more than even "textspeak".
    "U cn c me l8r" seems cute compared to just lazy or dumb writing.
    Your wright of course.
    Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth - Marcus Aurelius

  23. #23
    Oliphaunt jali's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Walker in Eternity View post
    Your wright of course.
    Do ewe post their two?
    They weren't singing....they were just honking.
    Glee 2009

  24. #24
    Head Heathen Katriona's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by dread pirate jimbo View post
    As someone who majored in English and who gets very cranky with the shit spelling and grammar I see daily on things like Facebook and, worse, in work e-mails, I fully endorse this rant and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
    This is exactly what I came into the thread to say.

  25. #25
    Stegodon Walker in Eternity's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by jali View post
    Do ewe post their two?
    Sumtimz.
    Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth - Marcus Aurelius

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