Apparently, I've been sheltered from typical teens on the Internet

[Relambrien]

The following may sound like a rant, but it's more of an "O_O" moment of sheer surprise.

So, the places on the Internet I usually visit tend to be civil, more or less. People also tend to type relatively coherently, and anything even remotely resembling chatspeak is highly frowned upon. Basically, all the forums I go to are similar to FFR in average post quality.

Now, considering the numbers of teens on these sites, I figured that the whole "teens and chatspeak" thing was over exaggerated. At least, that was until my friends at school finally convinced me to get a MySpace. I don't even really do anything with it; I leave it open and refresh to see if anything happened whenever I'm waiting on a page to load.

But HOLY CRAP, I never had any idea my friends could be the way they are online. Here's an excerpt from one message conversation I had:

Originally Posted by MySpace convo

Friend: can somebody tell me how i get videos on there there on my purchase on mycomputer and i know its a video ipod becase i can do podcast with no problem. but im having a hrd time putting videos. its the new ipod but your help is needed

Me: I might be able to help. These videos, did you buy them from iTunes? Or, more specifically, do you know they're the right file format?

If they are in the right file format, then here's what you do. Go into iTunes, go to File > Add file to library. Find the video and double-click it; this adds it to your iTunes library. In the bar on the left side of the screen, under the "Library" heading, click on "Movies." Then click and hold on the movie you just added, and drag it onto your iPod, also on the bar to the left. That should do it.

In a step-by-step format, it would go like this.

1) Ensure video is in the proper format.
2) Open iTunes.
3) File > Add file to library.
4) Navigate to movie.
5) Double-click.
6) Go to the Videos section under the "Library" heading in iTunes.
7) Click and drag the video to the iPod.

Which step are you having trouble with?

Friend: im going have to check on that 2morow becasue im on my laptop but ill get back to u 2morow about it. the problem is i cant get it on my ipod

I have to read over everyone's messages at least twice to understand what they're saying, people seem to have no reasoning ability whatsoever, and this is consistent across every single person I know. No wonder people make so many grammar errors in typed assignments; they don't even attempt to use remotely correct English while on a computer.

I was truly bewildered that every single person was like this. Further, most people when posting comments or bulletins say little one-line things like "lol new pic pc4pc," whereas even my one-sentence comments take up like three lines. And I usually write a couple sentences...

Have I really been that sheltered? Is there any hope for humanity?

Also, share your situations where you wanted to strangle someone you knew for using chatspeak, or for doing something you never thought they'd do.

EDIT: Thought of something else. Has anyone ever experienced any situations in which someone acts so much more idiotic online than they do in life? Take for instance my example. The guy says "I can't get videos on my iPod," I ask him what part he's having trouble with, and he says, "the problem is that I can't get videos on my iPod." I mean...what the heck?

[massflavour]

yea one of my better friends in real life always types like that in IMs. it's pretty annoying but I'd hate to be rude to him and tell him to quit it, cuz he's intelligent enough otherwise.

[~HentaiXXX~]

Same as mass, but I actually told him to quit, and he said no. =|

[massflavour]

that sux, hentai. now that I think of it I had a bit of a similar experience. I asked one of my other friends to quit typing like that and he ended up bitching about me to one of my other friends (cause apparently asking him to type correctly is too much to ask). I found out about it about a week or two ago.

[skishmonkey72]

I'm really sorry, but being the nerd I am, I have to note the similarities between this and file compression. You have my permission to skip the next paragraph.

Chatspeak is like a compressed file. When a file is compressed, it becomes smaller, but the process of reading it takes much longer than an uncompressed file. Normal English, however, is like uncompressed files, they are larger in size, but can be read much faster than something that has been compressed.

Anyways, while I try to think in real life terms as opposed to computer terms...
Yes, chatspeak has always been one of my pet peeves. I've seen people who condense everything possible to chatspeak/n00bspeak, even when it's harder to type (aka using numbers and symbols instead of the appropriate letters), and even misspell that. It's sad, really. I'm torn between wanting to laugh at them as their knowledge of English fails in real life, and feeling horribly sorry for them, seeing how disadvantaged they are. I'm glad this is somewhat enforced on FFR. If it wasn't, I would never go on the forums.

A side note, slightly off topic: What is with people and myspace? Facebook I understand, and it's a lot more user-friendly for people who just have profiles for themselves. The only time I ever go on myspace is to visit myspaces of bands that I like, and the thought of individuals having myspace rarely occurs to me. Why not just get facebook, and take advantage of the better-designed interface and capabilities, and leave myspace to bands, who can better take advantage of all myspace's features (ie: playing music on profile)

[Magic_V2]

At the rate we're going there is no hope for humanity, which was very accurately portrayed (in my honest opinion) by the movie, "Idiocracy".

[Popmeister]

Originally Posted by skishmonkey72

A side note, slightly off topic: What is with people and myspace? Facebook I understand, and it's a lot more user-friendly for people who just have profiles for themselves. The only time I ever go on myspace is to visit myspaces of bands that I like, and the thought of individuals having myspace rarely occurs to me. Why not just get facebook, and take advantage of the better-designed interface and capabilities, and leave myspace to bands, who can better take advantage of all myspace's features (ie: playing music on profile)

This.

[skishmonkey72]

Originally Posted by Popmeister

This.

I don't understand. Please explain? Using more words, perhaps?

[Professor Raine]

I find it sad that the really intelligent people I know type in chatspeak when they are online. When I tell them to stop it, they get a little ticked off. But when I tell them I have dyslexia (and prove it), they feel bad and they start to write out everything as it should be read.

The moral? It seems that you need to guilt people into typing out words rather than teaching them in school that it's wrong.

[arrekusuof93]

I'm personally not bothered by chatspeak because I started out in AOL chat rooms, slowly moving my way up the internet. I don't find shortening of words hard to read, but I do find excessive 1337speak a little difficult.

I stopped talking like that after I realized how stupid I sounded. I actually got criticized for capitalizing my ****ing letters in an AOL conversation. If this would have happened to me now, I probably would have flamed them to hell. At the time I didn't think much of it, except that the other person must have been somewhat of an idiot.

Originally Posted by Relambrien

EDIT: Thought of something else. Has anyone ever experienced any situations in which someone acts so much more idiotic online than they do in life?

I've experienced this, but not much to the point of annoyance. They act more arrogant, which is to be expected of some people. As for chat/1337 speak online: the most intelligent girl I've ever known uses word-shortening and acronyms a lot. I don't think this is because she's lazy, but because she doesn't see the need to type correctly as long as it's legible.

[Zageron]

Uhhg. I feel your pain. All of my school friends talk like that online because they haven't had the practice of typing properly. It's like..
Me: Hey, hows it going.
90% of Friends: nm u? 9% of Friends: Ehh. Nutin rely just hangin. 1% of Friends respond civilly.

Most of the conversations end there.

[skishmonkey72]

Most of the conversations end there.

Haha, so true. MSN syndrome. I deleted all the people off my contact list who never say anything more than that. That means my list is down to something like 12 people.

Anyways, back on topic...
@arrekusuof93: Yeah, I used to speak in full sentences, with proper grammar, capitalization, and punctuation to only this one friend, and it annoyed the **** out of him.
Acronyms don't bother me really, especially when they're in context, such as an acronym such as FC or SDG on the forums here, or common acronyms such as FBI and USA. It's just when they're acronyms like brb and g2g and stuff like that when it annoys me.

[Popmeister]

Originally Posted by skishmonkey72

I don't understand. Please explain? Using more words, perhaps?

1 phrase: QFT

Oh wait, that's not appropriate to the thread...

5 words: I was agreeing with you.

Some more words: Regarding grammar, the standards of Facebook were/are generally set higher than those of Myspace. I believe Facebook is supposed to cater to high school students and beyond, whereas just about anyone can get a Myspace (even though teens and up are the general population). I guess since the standards of age and otherwise weren't set as high for Myspace, then when a group of people started tlking lyk dis, others followed suit.

...Actually, I think I was just expressing my pro-Facebook opinion before and said this other stuff to stay somewhat on topic. Personally, I don't really care how people type, as long as I can understand it and it's not just a big run-on. =\

Also, a part of it might be a lack of an introduction to forums and such. My first posts here were borderline chatspeak (maybe they actually were, but I'm too lazy to use the search button for my own posts, heh) and this was the first forum I'd ever been on that enforced grammar in some manner (others were for school, in which no one really cared at all). Just throwing that out there.

[sp1nzoK]

I'm kind of neutral towards the "typical teen" ways, I can read it, I can understand it, I can get good laugh out of it sometimes, heck I even chat like that myself sometimes with some of my better friends who get the joke. I do prefer more mature way to handle things but I don't get irritated from seeing people acting immature.

Mostly I chat smart in "public" and take some leeway when I chat with persons I know.

Not all can tolerate the typical teens, but the typical teens have strong base on many many sites, only good rules and moderation can weed it out.

[x6tence]

yeah I hate "txt" talk. its annoying.
why won't people just use proper grammer?
the average myspace convorsation(did i spell that right?) is like this:

hey sup?
nm
oh kewl



I mean what the heck come on folks...

[ledwix]

Remember that the level of intellect of the average person is very, very low. Most people are too lazy or don't even WANT to sound intelligent. Humanity has been like this for quite some time, though not forever; the "txt talk" and computer blogging revolution is just another phenomenon we're going through. Myspace is just not as professional an environment as a forum. Obviously, there are people on forums who are completely ignorant/oblivious/just plain stupid. There are people who make threads with OPs that sound like toddlers. But overall, the standards in a forum are much higher.

[GuidoHunter]

Get better friends who don't type like morons.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[killtherockk]

Originally Posted by x6tence

yeah I hate "txt" talk. its annoying.
why won't people just use proper grammer?
the average myspace convorsation(did i spell that right?) is like this:

hey sup?
nm
oh kewl



I mean what the heck come on folks...

it's conversations...never mind lol

well i canceled my myspace account because of those people.

[_lurk3r]

Grammar and spelling on the internet is just fashion and indicative of little beyond your typing speed or how much you care about it. Ideas of someone "sounding smart" or "typing like a moron" are just cultural associations. If you could actually gauge someone's intelligence from the way they write, then the SAT writing wouldn't be the joke it is now.

What should matter is the content of what you're saying. The friend in the original post didn't do anything that could show a lack of intelligence other than adding on something that was already understood. Language in general follows trends and changes just like fashion does; making fun of people for using "ur", "cuz", etc are equivalent to making fun of someone for dressing a certain way.

At the rate we're going there is no hope for humanity, which was very accurately portrayed (in my honest opinion) by the movie, "Idiocracy".

I have a feeling that you would call someone who doesn't type correctly an idiot, yet take an IQ test and say "tests of intelligence are meaningless..." and disregard, say, dysgenics.

[killtherockk]

Originally Posted by _lurk3r

Grammar and spelling on the internet is just fashion and indicative of little beyond your typing speed or how much you care about it. Ideas of someone "sounding smart" or "typing like a moron" are just cultural associations. If you could actually gauge someone's intelligence from the way they write, then the SAT writing wouldn't be the joke it is now.

What should matter is the content of what you're saying. The friend in the original post didn't do anything that could show a lack of intelligence other than adding on something that was already understood. Language in general follows trends and changes just like fashion does; making fun of people for using "ur", "cuz", etc are equivalent to making fun of someone for dressing a certain way.



I have a feeling that you would call someone who doesn't type correctly an idiot, yet take an IQ test and say "tests of intelligence are meaningless..." and disregard, say, dysgenics.

well...actually most of the time i don't get what the "typing like a moron" people say lol example :

some girl : wuu2?

me: what?

the girl : what you up to?

me: lol

i guess it's my problem that i didn't understand what she said.