posted
LOL You're all Radio 4 listeners, aren't you?
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not...
You reached over with your hand and knocked my Jap over
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Man, I just listened to Joss Stone being interviewed by Chris Moyles on Radio 1 (I know, I know). Christ. It was just shocking, truly shocking. She just would not shut up, didn't stop to think about anything before it poured out her mouth. Fuck man. I nearly drove off the road at one point, I couldn't switch it off, total car crash radio. Talking all over Moyles, not listening to anything, fucking terrible, fucking terrible. You could see that Moyles was giving her the opportunity to redeem herself a bit after her Brits performance but she just used her big mouth spade to excavate a bigger hole for herself.
So to answer your question ben. Joss Stone may be to blame.
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posted
When people say that they 'didn't learn in school' then maybe it might be because that's the only time they will be marked or corrected on their lack of skills. All this pent-up rage is getting us absoloutely fucking nowhere. We need to take back the basic pronciples. Innit.
posted
You know, I'm completely impressed with the general standard of spelling and grammar on the web. Putting aside the standard they're/there/their confusion and apostrophe crimes, most forum posts I read are worded clearly and the odd spelling error is an irrelevant minor irritation.
Maybe this is does come from lowering one's own standards after years of reading the stuff, or of filtering the errors as if you had a Babel fish in your eye but, considering how bad it could be, we really do get off very lightly I would say.
And some common spellos like "bare with me" can even be funny in the right/wrong context.
I think we'd know if things were genuinely bad. People would soon vote with their thingers and simply start using another internet instead.
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quote:Originally posted by ben: And who's really to blame?[/b]
Clearly, the arrival of widespread text messaging facilities and 'msn' has seen a large number of people adopting 'txt spk' as a quicker, more 'concise' method of communicating. Some people claim to use 'txt spk' in order to restrict the size of the message they intend to send, thereby minimising the costs involved. Another argument is that they are simply too busy to be bothered using 'full words', hence save their own valuable time by sending out messages that are only readily comprehensible by either teens, or hardcore 'txt spk' translators.
Either way, the fact is that the number of people adopting these latest methods/acceptable forms of communication is growing at breakneck speed and is likely to worsen; probably to the point where letters aren't used any more - little copyrighted signs and dashes may be the next stage. In the meantime, I will continue in my time-honoured fashion of ignoring anybody who sends me text messages or e-mails incorporating the deliberate use of 'txt spk', or any other meaningless drivel.
Edited to add: unless it's a fit bird, in which case I usually turn a blind eye.
posted
Can anyone explain to me what the point is of text speak? I've had a phone for over four years and in that time I've never had anything to say by text that cost anything more than 30p. I'll try to use the full word limit for each text too. Arrangements go like this:
Me: So where do you want to meet then?
Mate: KINGS ARMS
Me: Ok. The Kings Arms on Radnor Street or Shelby Road?
Mate: RDNR ST
Me: Cool, see you there. A man just fell over. It was funny. My favourite colour is blue.
posted
Hey Thorn, we've got our very own personal Kerry McFadden in our office. It's incredible. She started off really quiet and it was a couple of days before I even knew she was a Scouser, but three weeks later she's in full flow at top volume all day long with that dirty laugh they all seem to have. And she's built exactly like KMcF, only a bit younger.
You've probably moved on from that now though.
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quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay: Me: Cool, see you there. A man just fell over. It was funny. My favourite colour is blue.
Cool, I'm glad to see I'm in good company as I do the same thing. I feel cheated if I don't manage to get full word value from my texts, always use full words and think nothing of sending 2 or 3 text long essays if I feel like it.
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quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay: When people say that they 'didn't learn in school' then maybe it might be because that's the only time they will be marked or corrected on their lack of skills. All this pent-up rage is getting us absoloutely fucking nowhere. We need to take back the basic pronciples. Innit.
My thing is that I find myself more and more uncertain about some of the rules and that winds me up at times. I do think the media is partly to blame, although it's not that simple, of course. However, it is common for the rules to be deliberately broken for effect in the media. I hate that film title with happyness in it. I just know it will mean a boatload of people will think that's how it's really spelt. But then again, I found myself looking at 'honeys' in ben's first post and wondering why that wasn't spelled with an -ies. Duh.
But does it actually mean people really are dumbing down? To me picking on things like this is a great excuse to moan about other people because we all get so wound up by the irritation of having strangers around us all the time with their 'stupid' and different habits. It satisfies the urge to moan, but doesn't actually hurt anyone.
I don't think we are, as a society, dumbing down. It's been less than a hundred years since free education was introduced in this country and thirty years after that before the school leaving age was raised to sixteen. It's still a class-based system in some way or another even in the state sector; never mind the obvious divisions between public and state education. So it's been a dumbing down for the majority of the population since when? In spite of all the flaws in the system, the general population has never been so well educated or erudite.
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posted
It really fucks me off when people write 'opps' rather than 'oops'. I'm not sure why, as it's not even a proper word, but it really grinds my gears. I mean, it's one of the most basic things you learn in school, how to spell a word based on how it sounds.
Also, people who describe bald people as being 'bold'.
posted
I had to buy a new mobile this week, as my ancient fossil finally died (Jeff Carphone Warehouse looked distinctly confused at the request for "the cheapest and crappest phone in the shop please"). It took me ages to work out how to turn the predictive text thing off. It was a fucking nonsense. Why and how do people use it?
One of my bunch of" I've got married/sprogged/a big house, what about you?" Christmas cards included one from an ex-Uni friend, who informed me she was expecting a "visit from the stalk". She's a teacher.
I clearly remember being taught their/they're/there at First School. But what I've never understood is how you can continue in ignorance outside the education system. Surely every time you read something your eyes will be absorbing the correct version? I mean, even the tabloids and sleb magazines have sub-editors, so the plebs will be reading proper English. Or am I being hopelessly naive, and they just look at the pictures?
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posted
I was unaware of a pronunciation difference between bold/bald. Maybe it's a regional thing?
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H1ppychick
We all prisoners, chickee-baby. We all locked in.
posted
balled/bald
bowled/bold
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quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: It took me ages to work out how to turn the predictive text thing off. It was a fucking nonsense. Why and how do people use it?
My predictive text facility contains all my favourite swear words. It's easier to type 'fu...' than 'fucking **** ', for example.
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quote:Originally posted by Ringo: Also, people who describe bald people as being 'bold'.
Indeed. There was a teacher at school called Mr Caldwell - who was bald. His rather unoriginal nickname was 'Baldwell', although people always wrote 'Boldwell'. Most irritating.
Thorn - I admit to occasionally using such turns of phrase as 'additional extra'. Having observed in this very thread that this mashing of words may well be employed by Guardian writers, I am going to avoid it like the merry plague.
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quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: It took me ages to work out how to turn the predictive text thing off. It was a fucking nonsense. Why and how do people use it?
Do you really find the multi-tap method quicker or easier than predictive?
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quote:Originally posted by sam: But does it actually mean people really are dumbing down?
I'm not entirely convinced. In my stint at BCA, I used to work in correspondence and the letters I use to open were from a wide range of the public, full of errors, mostly gibberish, incomprehensible and all of which were presumably from people who were at the very least, purchasing books. I mean, unless we're talking about a real sudden drop of values in the past five years, I wouldn't say so from personal experience, but then perhaps other forumites might have better examples.
posted
As an example of language dumbing down, I present evidence of my two younger brothers. One is 26, is training to be a primary school teacher but is also a hip hop DJ, and uses myspace a lot. His messages are usually amusingly shortened, missing out apostrophes and slightly misspelling things on purpose:
quote:[older brother, in reply to an enquiry about his teaching coursework] howdy, yeah im writing entralling bidness about the place of science in the school curriculum-gangster
Younger one is 16, still at school, uses Bebo a lot, and his messages are proper scary text speak:
quote:[younger brother, on his bebo page] i love chillin with my m8s an stuff, luv goin out, dnt care wer lyk lol. finally just got the girl of my dreams. WOOO lol. as u can tel im prety weird :S but oh well, ill get ova it lol.
I usually find it fairly easy to understand texts from the older brother, and from what I've seen on his myspace page his mates write similarly. Messages from the younger one, on the other hand, should almost come with an attached dictionary, and his bebo page seems to show that his mates write the same way as him too.
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quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: It took me ages to work out how to turn the predictive text thing off. It was a fucking nonsense. Why and how do people use it?
Do you really find the multi-tap method quicker or easier than predictive?
I genuinely didn't understand how the predictive thing worked. I was trying to type the word "does" as in "does this new phone work then?" and after "d" it just kept changing it to other words and making me angry. How is that easier? Surely it massively constricts your own style and turns every message into a clone made up of common words. And how much time does it really save you? 4 seconds per message maybe? It's the equivalent of a pushy parent sitting next to their child and changing every other word in their story as they try and write. "Now, Giles, did you really mean to put ginormous monkey-man? Let's put large ape instead!"
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quote:Originally posted by sam: But does it actually mean people really are dumbing down?
I'm not entirely convinced. In my stint at BCA, I used to work in correspondence and the letters I use to open were from a wide range of the public, full of errors, mostly gibberish, incomprehensible and all of which were presumably from people who were at the very least, purchasing books. I mean, unless we're talking about a real sudden drop of values in the past five years, I wouldn't say so from personal experience, but then perhaps other forumites might have better examples.
I still like pronciples. Can I keep it?
Maybe it is more about people feeling increasingly empowered to have opinions and write in about them in recent years?
BCA?
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Yeah, it is pretty funny. He has no real intention of being a full time teacher, and only did it so he could do occasional substitute work, and to stop my mum nagging him, I think.
quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: How is that easier? Surely it massively constricts your own style and turns every message into a clone made up of common words.
Eventually, you know after how many 'taps' it takes for your desired words to be highlighted. It does save you a lot of time. Say, for instance, you'd just thought of something hilarious and wanted to text a friend, or whoever. By the time you've 'typed' each letter in, you may have forgotten precisely how you wanted to word your message (it's far more time consuming than on a computer keyboard, or via speech), whereas with the predictive text facility you can let the words flow straight from the engine house, so to speak.
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quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess: I genuinely didn't understand how the predictive thing worked. I was trying to type the word "does" as in "does this new phone work then?" and after "d" it just kept changing it to other words and making me angry.
This seems weird to me because I have never not used predictive text. When I have occasionally tried I get really wound up by the fact I have to press some buttons more than once to get the right letter, and I have to look at them carefully to see how many times to press the button too. With predictive text I press each button once and as the word is typed, it sorts out which letter I wanted.
Edited to add:
It also saves me having to learn txt. I simply can't make myself do txt. It just seems wrong.
In the end it's habit, innit?
[ 22.02.2007, 06:59: Message edited by: sam ]
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