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

[ledwix]

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

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]

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

Get better friends who don't type like morons.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[killtherockk]

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

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]

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

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]

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

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.

[TS_SonicMaster]

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

It's just annoying once you see the other side, typing the right way, full words and proper grammar. My cousin, when online, uses that way of typing, and it doesn't seem like she actually would.

[Nyokou]

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

I had the same problem with one of my friends, but over time she got better at typing. She still makes mistakes though, here and there... whether is be the usage of a certain word, spelling, or grammar. I don't blame her though because she's fairly new to the language. I think she's doing well too.

[phe0nixblade]

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

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?

Yes, there's this girl I know in real life who is a very smart girl actually, her grades are normally A's or B's. But when she talks to me on myspaceim, I have to read the things over 2 sometimes up to 5 times, and I still don't understand what she is saying.

[boondocks77]

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

I guess ''txt talk'' has just become something teens have conformed to nowadays, like the new colloquialism. I asked my friend why he chooses to type like that, he said because it's online and it means nothing, and also that he's lazy. I think the majority of people who use txt talk can agree to that, particularly the laziness aspect.

[Relambrien]

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

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.

There's one difference. Compressed files take a much shorter time to transfer (write) than uncompressed files, but chatspeak doesn't offer too much of an advantage in time unless it's used excessively, and even then it isn't all that great.

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)

I actually never wanted to get a MySpace or Facebook; it was the fact that every conversation with my friends started with "Hey, did you get a MySpace yet?" that I got fed up enough to go through with it. Like I said, I don't even really do anything, just refresh it while other pages are loading to see if anything happens. I only did it to appease my friends (also, in before "peer pressure lol." I weighed the benefits and risks and found that getting a MySpace would be more beneficial than ignoring it). That's also the reason I don't have a Facebook; I never really wanted one in the first place.

Get better friends who don't type like morons.

I guess one of my friend criteria should be "Does the potential friend have a MySpace?" Don't bother if he/she does, go ahead if he/she doesn't :P

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.

That's the whole point. Because of the way they choose to type, people may assume they have lower intelligence than they really do, even though, like you said, typing style isn't really indicative of intelligence. That's what annoys me.

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.

Try to imagine this in a normal, off-line conversation:

You: "Hey, you're having problems with your iPod?"
Friend: "Yeah, I can't get videos on it."
You: "Well, here's what you do. (List steps). Which part are you having trouble with?"
Friend: "Well...the problem is that I can't get videos on my iPod."

Even in a verbal conversation, that last remark is quite idiotic. That doesn't necessarily mean the person is, but the remark certainly is.

The problem is that I've noticed similar trends among all my friends who use chatspeak. A decrease in typing formality often accompanies a decrease in content quality. Why? I don't know; it's just something I've noticed. The more formally someone types, the better their ideas are, and vice versa.

My overall problem with chatspeak is basically its risk to reward ratio. You get a slightly faster typing speed if you're lucky, at the cost of the person on the other side having to spend an increased amount of time to decode your message. Often things are lost in translation. Besides that, you develop typing habits that can cause you to suffer whenever you have to type something formally, such as an assignment for school or a document for work. You also forfeit the ability to increase your own typing speed, by circumventing it with short-hand.

The risk to reward just isn't worth it.

[EOP_MAGNITUDE]

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

I used to talk like AIM speak, but eventually, because I'm a writer, I said to myself:
"What the hell are you doing?!"

So, know I type in as proper English as I can muster and am aware of, and even then I get called a 'nerd' by people typing "lik thiz."

Sometimes I don't know what this world will come to. I was talking to an AIM bot(the McLovin one; I thought it would be fun xD). So, I get a question and the posed answers were: yes or no.
My response was: Yes.
They didn't accept it. So, then I said, No.
Again, they didn't accept it. So finally, I said : yes
And they accepted it. But, what can you do? The only real solution I think is that there in comfort knowing that a majority(majority, not all) of these people will probably be working for you in the future!

[nestlekwik]

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

People constantly ask me why I type properly over AIM. That's probably why I stopped using it. But, anyway, it seems all I have to do is tell them I am a journalist/writer and the conversation about it is over. It obviously makes sense, but, seriously, I almost want to become an English teacher to smash some sense into these kids' skulls before our language is officially dubbed "American."

[GuidoHunter]

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

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.

Aha, but it is those who care so little about their online conversational habits who do not communicate in an understandable manner. It is those people who, upon receipt of a PM from me stating very clearly that they've broken the new rule outlined in the sticky in Game Threads, and that they should stop breaking the rule under punishment of a ban, reply, "wat??? lol!!!!!" On the other hand, those who type with at least adequate grammatical habits have at least the sense to clarify their question and direct my attention to a particular point.

I think (and I'll go so far as to say everyone should think) less of people who type like that. Those people are destructive influences to themselves and to others, and if they do not have the presence of mind to type in a reasonably effective manner, they shall not receive the credit that they may deserve. I don't care how intelligent you may be in person, if you relegate yourself to the position of sloth for no good reason, appeal to the lowest form of sometimes-decipherable communication, and help foster such habits in yourself and in others, you've got a serious problem, and that problem is called "stupid".

There is no excuse for typing like a twelve year old girl on the internet, even if you're a twelve year old girl.

--Guido

[Tokzic]

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

My grammar over instant messengers was way better before I started being sarcastic constantly, dropping capitalization and punctuation most of the time. I never use "txt tlk" though and only two of my friends that I know in person use grammar in IM windows.

[eviloyster]

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

Me and most of my friends on myspace type coherently and in full sentences, and those who don't only do so because they can't.

And I don't get the big thing with Facebook. Around here Myspace is preferred 100% over Facebook, and the only people who prefer Facebook are 30+ : /

Also, people who do type in this whateveryou'dliketocallit abbreviated form of English, I stopped mocking them for it about 2 years ago, I grew out of that.