I agree. I don’t demand perfection, but it’s amazing how few people understand that the simple placement of a coma can completely change the meaning if your tweet.
“I knew what I meant” is the most common response when I ask.
When you learn other languages besides English, you realize it's all gebrish. I can spell every word wrong, write a similar word to what I want in a paragraph and people still understand the point. I sometimes question some English words even though I have written it or seen it a million times. 😂
its a result of trying to cram more information into a character limit, that's all. people are really good at parsing mangled language - you can remove a LOT of letters and still get your message across coherently.
Part of me knows exactly how you feel, but the other part of me also knows language constantly evolves and some words were deliberately made harder to spell to keep the masses under control. Then there's the whole aluminum and color issue....
I’m pretty sure it’s related to why cursive is no longer taught. I dislike it as well. Our local SM groups are filled with shorthand versions of grammar that makes me want to scream.
“Loose” and “lose” for example. And it’s not about predictive text, although that adds to misspellings and typos.
I've been watching this happen for years. Prior to the internet, almost everything that could be read had been edited and proofread.
With social media, anyone could write anything and have it widely disseminated without any editing.
Misspellings proliferate, and English is rapidly evolving.
Or devolving.
English has always been great at absorbing influences, making it so phenomenally adaptable. But when the structure, relation and spelling of its parts are subject to this much rot and rust, I fear it doesn't bode well. Especially with the meaningless blandishments of AI permeating it.
CMC is creative, dynamic and interesting to study. The language you complain about appeared as early as the 1890s, but has really taken off with the advent of messaging.
I work with adults who are a good ten years older than me and they’re just as bad, if not worse. Things like dyslexia was less frequently caught 20+ years ago so quite a few older people are on the brink of illiteracy.
As an English professor this is the bane of my existence. I’ve had to train myself to look past it, but it isn’t easy and sometimes I still blurt out “You’re! Not your! Jesus!” But then I remember that it’s the message that matters and calm my ass down. 🤷
Comments
* the more they write, the better they'll get at it, and
* we can't be choosy about the medium anymore, that horse is out of the barn
Writing online lots over time - I think - develops their ability to adjust writing styles better than we realize to fit the intended audience
God, I hope I’ve written this correctly…
“I knew what I meant” is the most common response when I ask.
I blame autocorrect
Lost for words.
But you´re right. I have seen that awful grammar and spelling for many years on the internet.
Go figure 😂
“Loose” and “lose” for example. And it’s not about predictive text, although that adds to misspellings and typos.
With social media, anyone could write anything and have it widely disseminated without any editing.
Misspellings proliferate, and English is rapidly evolving.
English has always been great at absorbing influences, making it so phenomenally adaptable. But when the structure, relation and spelling of its parts are subject to this much rot and rust, I fear it doesn't bode well. Especially with the meaningless blandishments of AI permeating it.
Even the knowledge to pronounce words correctly, is going. (Divisive - pronunciation).