Can anyone on here ask a question and do it properly?

Question

Why do the young people on here seem to write as if they are 3 yrs old?
I see questions like...
Wut do I du?
And referring to thier Mother In Law......MIL..
And the word should..it becomes shud....
What has become of the english language?..
Should(not shud) we worry???

Answer 1

I COMPLETELY agree with you. I think we do need to worry, Shizzle and Bizzle?? People are Butchering the English Language. I've found the exact same thing. My Husband and I answer a lot of Science / Mathematics / Physics / Alternative Science / Philosophy / Health etc... There are a LOT of serious questions in those sections, and we've seen the most immature, rude, ignorant comments.

Some people only care about points on here, so they answer any question, simply to obtain 2 points. It's extremely annoying, but on occasion some are funny.

I also find it aggravating when someone asks if people know a specific person, say a Scientist or Mathematician, and people leave answers implying that the Asker has no knowledge of any other Scientists etc... How do they know what knowledge the Asker has?

People need to grow up, and if they are looking for points, and come across a SERIOUS question, or one that involves free thought, and intellect, they should continue on and get their points answering a question that suits their intellect.

Answer 2

I don't know what draws me to questions like this, and why I feel the need to deem them worth answering, but maybe I'm hoping a little insight into how language works will perhaps convert a prescriptivist or two.

No, you needn't worry. It's all just a natural part of language shift. It's the sort of thing that's been going on in English (and every other written language) since it got an orthography. It has perhaps been hastened by the advent of the internet and the ease with which it allows people from different cultures (and levels of education) to communicate with one another, but no less natural because of it.
There seem to be a lot of people on here that are against any change in the English language, whether it be spelling or grammatical, but what many don't seem to realise is that you're rallying against the very sorts of changes that have made English what it is today (and what you seem to want to keep it as). Just think about this: Without the interference from "less educated" people, we wouldn't be able to form constructions such as "that big book of mine", we would still be spelling (and pronouncing) the word "bird" as "bridd" and so forth.
In fact, while poor spelling is a problem in English for many people (and don't get me wrong, I think people should at least make enough of an effort so that they don't seem to be talking in code, but for their own sake - they won't be understood well otherwise) if English were to go through many more sound changes, like the Great Vowel Shift, without an alteration to orthography then the literacy problems will only worsen, as the orthography will become even less phonetic than it already is, and the only way to know how to spell a word would be through rote learning - we'd effectively be in a similar situation to the Chinese, where national literacy rates are terrible due (in part) to the totally non-phonetic nature of their script.
So, really, those people that are ranting about the ignorance and poor literacy of others should actually be welcoming these linguistic changes (and probably ranting at their own ignorance).

Answer 3

This drives my mom crazy too. I do speak that way online a lot to my friends, and when writing a quick e-mail, but I would never write a paper using abbreviated language. And if I am writing a professor or possible employer I would never use that sort of language either. I would not worry, hopefully most people that write this way on the site are well educated, they just see no need to make it perfect to ask their question. Sadly, some might not know the difference, but I like to think the best of the my generation.

Answer 4

It's the result of both laziness on the part of younger people mostly when it comes to online communication, but now it has become kind of the norm, something cool that you have to do.

It'll just create a shock for such people when they ever get a job that requires proper correspondance and writing skills then they'll have a hard time.

It just makes a person look like a moron to do it.

But they say that something like 40% of American adults are functionally illiterate (meaning they can't say read a newspaper article and make all the right inferences and understand what is said to a full extent). So it's par for the course I guess. They can look forward to a career in some manual labour/industrial setting.

Answer 5

It's English, not 'english'. I agree in many ways. In fact, I heard that answers (similar to those used on MSN) used on cellphones in New Zealand are/will be allowed on exams in that country. Most of the time, people care about the ideas themselves, not the spelling. Anyway, I don't think we should worry yet. For example, using 'shud' on a job application won't help your chances, and spellcheck isn't perfect, so necessity might help the English language.

Answer 6

I agree with you, it is very irritating.

As a foreigner who has learned English as second language I have problems with most shorthand, maybe my age works against me there too.
But I find that words written as in a dictionary are widely understood, but words spelled as they sound to the person writing are very hard to look up when you do not get the meaning.
And for the numbers replacing words, ever thought about what '2 = to' looks like if you read 2 as 'twee' or as 'dva'.

The people using shorthand are closing out most people who are doing their best to communicate in a language not their own. I wonder how many of the people using shorthand would be able to read and write in a foreign language, and how well they would do in the shorthand of those languages.

And for plain bad spelling, there is no excuse, as there is a working spelling checker on this site that gets most of the typing errors. It is only when you miss-spel into an other existing word that it fails.
(I spelled with as whit yesterday and I did catch it, but the checker did not.)

Answer 7

Its very simple really, people write in short hand only on the internet, so you don't have to type as many keys. Lets say you are playing a game on-line and you want to say something but your dying, there would be no time to write proper. So in short its just on the internet that people talk in short hand, and 99% of people that do use short hand don't use it when lets say writing a letter.

Answer 8

As a matter of fact we should. My Best Friend Is a substitute teacher. Last year she taught English at the highschool for the entire second half of the year (because the actual teacher was very ill). When mid-term exam time came part of it was writing these long detailed essays to go with their oral reports and more than half of the students wrote their essays in "internet shorthand" and turned them in that way! Then had the nerve to get upset by bad grades for poor grammar and incorrect spelling! *shaking head in exasperation*

Answer 9

Yeah, I asked about that in the Education section and wondered if we are raising a bunch of illiterates. It is frustrating and scary if that's true. Some people said that there were people and kids that use english as a second language. True, but there are plenty more kids that are just very weak in their writing skills. A sign of the times and indicative of the problems with the school systems and worse, the parents.

Answer 10

I agree with you. I teach English, so to see the language shortened like that or butchered drives me insane.