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The text generation

13 comments on The text generation

The text generation
: The Shifted Librarian points to stories that say that this generation in Australia that says: “Internet messenger services, email, text and mobile phones are broadening children’s social networks and making them virtually inseparable from one another.”

Right. We feared that henceforth, all the children of the world would turn into TV-watching zombie hermits. But the Internet increases their sociability and their worlds.

And note this, too: On the Internet, you do have to be able to express yourself in words. Maybe that’s not essays; it’s just IM. But it’s not images, it’s words.

13 responses to “The text generation”

  1. michael Avatar
    michael

    I noticed my sons going crazy on the keyboard about 5-6 years ago as they discovered icq, the predecessor to im. They learned how to type so quickly that it sounds like a small explosion is taking place every time they say something online. They also started to care about their spelling and grammar – rules that matter when you see first hand the confusion that ensues when they’re ignored.
    Now that they’ve gone off to college, they’ve done a much better job keeping in touch with their friends due to im. Their evening interchanges are unaffected by the fact that they’re now thousands of miles apart instead of just around the corner.

  2. Marcel Perez Avatar
    Marcel Perez

    While it is true that participation in the internet requires some ability to express oneself in writing, it is also presents the risk of exposing any weakness in language skills.
    Every day conversation is hardly ever scrutinized or analyzed for proper syntax, pronunciation, or sentence completeness. Occasionally, I will listen to a more articulate speaker (such as Speech or English instructors)with the purpose of checking for complete sentences in their presentation. Occasionally you should do this as it will give you a better appreciation of proper language use.
    Most people write pretty much as they speak. Weak verbal skills usually translates into weak writing skills; meaning that we write as we speak.
    On the internet we see too many examples of just what I have claimed. Remarks are made in sentence particals, with blatant misspelling of simple words, poor use of punctuation or none at all. I have even seen eight lines of run-on, punctuation free, structure-less verbiage that was literally appalling.
    There even is an email code of abbreviations that,while being touted as a space and time saver, requires some knowledge of the system and doesn’t guarantee that the uninitiated will always understand the message. Fortunately, I haven’t seen any usage of “ya know what I mean?”,”yeah, yeah”, “ah, ah, ah” and “ya know”; expressions that permeate people’s conversations today.
    Yes, the internet has made the world accessible right from our own kitchen table. You just need a computer and a bit of operational skill. Your enjoyment of this access need not come at the expense of developing good verbal and writing skills in school the old fashioned way – by practice writing on paper.
    Unfortunately,for many people the internet just becomes another medium to display the increasing erosian of language skills in our society.

  3. Anthony Avatar
    Anthony

    Yeah dude, like, let’s not allow an erosion of language skills round these parts. Ya know what I mean? ;-)

  4. Marcel Perez Avatar
    Marcel Perez

    Congratulations, Anthony, you won the prize for being an astute enough reader to catch the purposely planted misspelling – and so quickly!
    Your prize is this acknowledgement.
    Thank you for the address “dude)”. At the age of sixty I haven’t been greeted with that expression in “many a yar”.

  5. Anthony Avatar
    Anthony

    The dude abides.

  6. R. C. Dean Avatar
    R. C. Dean

    While we are showing off our language skills, Marcel, I note that you used the term “verbal” when you meant “oral” or “speaking” in the following sentence:
    Weak verbal skills usually [sic] translates into weak writing skills; meaning that we write as we speak.
    Weak writing skills are by definition weak verbal skills. Weak speaking skills are also weak verbal skills. “Verbal” is not a synonym for “written”; the term “verbal” refers to “words” and is contrasted with non-verbal (gestures, expressions, silence), not with “oral”.

  7. Marcel Perez Avatar
    Marcel Perez

    Anthony:
    I feel it necessary to correct my previous comment so you don’t get the impression that you’d been had.
    You caught the misspelling of “erosion” correctly and I gave you a glib retort out of a natural instinct to avoid being caught.
    A couple lessons can be learned here.
    1. Be honest in your communications. Don’t be
    afraid to acknowledge a mistake and don’t take
    criticism too seriously. It’s not going to
    be fatal to you in any way.
    2. If you stick your nose out like I did in my
    original comment, expect an occasional nip on
    the tip and, hopefully not any severe bites.
    Be sure you edit and proof completely
    before you submit anything the theme of which
    might provoke the reader into a closer
    scrutiny than usual.
    3. Don’t limit yourself to the relative unimport-
    ance of typos and minor misspells. Give a
    consideration to the message and if you don’t
    agree…give ’em hell!
    4. If your language skills are as sharp as your
    mind you can often weasel your way out of an
    embarrassing predicament as I tried to do. But
    let your conscience be your guide.

  8. Tom K Avatar
    Tom K

    I’m not a grammar Nazi or anything, but I do have to admit to being a little picky about what I send in emails or other ‘net communication. Since back in the days of FIDOnet, I’ve always thought that in this medium, the ONLY thing other people see of you is the way you write. Why not make the extra effort to do your best in that regard?
    Some of the stuff I receive from friends/family is just pathetic. I find myself shocked when I see people who I know are intelligent sending messages that make them look like fools.
    That said, I’ve seen a great deal of improvement in most folks, usually after they’ve been on the net more than a year. It’s definately signs of a minor renaissance in written communcation, IMHO. Make no mistake: It’s certainly nothing near what the average English professor might have hoped for, but it’s better than nothing.

  9. Anthony Avatar
    Anthony

    Marcel,
    I was winking. :-) It is one of those unwritten rules that when posting a comment about spelling, a spelling mistake is bound to be made. I’m sure you can find examples at my blog.
    Personally, I find proof-reading on a computer screen more difficult. If it is something I have to get right, such as the proof of a journal article, then I have to print it off to proof-read.
    Off at a tangent, sometimes poor writing can be fatal.

  10. Marcel Perez Avatar
    Marcel Perez

    To all of the above:
    Thank you for more lessons learned on my part. I have been taking a chance trying to extend myself past my comfort zone in the attempt to keep my mental faculty from fleeing like a rat from a sinking ship.
    I have an advanced case of Parkinson’s disease and the computer and blog sites have been a boon in stimulating my brain cells, what little I have left.
    This is no excuse, but may cause me to be more defensive than I need be. When you enter this world of open discussion you may be entering someone else’s domain of expertise and you are indeed taking a chance on being corrected or even rebuked.
    This being offered, I think I will continue to take the chance and have fun doing it while I can.
    One thing I did succeed at. I stimulated several people into entering a dialogue over a common interest.

  11. Jim Oberg Avatar
    Jim Oberg

    “On the Internet, you do have to be able to express yourself in words. Maybe that’s not essays; it’s just IM. But it’s not images, it’s words.”
    I saw this with both my sons beginning in the mid-1990s, and it spilled beyond cyberspace — they wrote real letters, hardcopy in longhand as well. The used English to inquire, persuade, cajole, insult, inspire — and they got astonishingly good at it their E-pistolary style.
    My older son even chose journalism as his undergraduate major — not just because his Mom and Dad are writers, but because HE is a talented writer. My younger son won a number of prizes and contests in essay competitions — also something to be proud of.
    Who woulda thunk it?

  12. button Avatar
    button

    I think that the transcription of oral discourse into written or printed text has been invigorating our language.
    English is a very dynamic language anyway and always in flux. Indeed, some people have fun keeping tabs on that issue.
    You know, because of increased world mobility (at least, before 9/11) different dialects have been contributing some ingredients also. As a result, I have become quite intrigued by the East Indian neologisms and colloqualisms. They often have a fresh and charming way of putting things.
    Also somewhat related, have you seen the small, sporadic feature at The Guardian called PermaChat? It’s a tongue-in-cheek take-off on a Current Events or chat room.
    Personally, I’ve had to make a conscious effort to stop tyranically editing myself, especially for spelling errors, in order to free myself up to better express comments. I am not a great speller :-(
    But I am not so worried about everyone’s language deteriorating into those “texting” abbreviations.

  13. triticale Avatar
    triticale

    And here I always thought an Erosian was someone from the planet Eros.
    I don’t write as I speak. I use such short forms as tho and thru but this is the first time I’ve ever typed out prinnur.