Today I continue being a bitch

[pandaemonaeum]

Yesterday I joined a debate on a local internet message board. The board tends towards flamey, and childish. I put up some of my thoughts on the fashion industry, in response to something posted by a regular poster. Looked like he/she was posting chunks of questions for a coursework essay.

Someone cut a single comment of mine, replying with ROFLMAO. Then they underlined it and issued some vague threats. I posted back, challenging them to back up their argument. Today I went back there, and the poster is saying I flamed her, and mis-read what she said. WTF? I've invited her to report me to the mods. She said I was 'too quick to flame people' (actually, it was "u r 2 quick to flame ppl"). LOL!

So continues my campaign for clarity in posting on the internet. We have a rich and varied language, and yet we reduce it to abbreviations and text speak. I've done it twice myself above. We are losing the beauty of our language in a barrage of baby talk, reducing its complexity to include the lowest common denominator. You go onto message boards and people cannot spell, they speak in text abbreviations, and they use strange and complex abbreviations to replace a compliment like 'That's funny!', which only takes a second more to type. And don't even start me on grammar or punctuation - my feeling is that these things are rapidly becoming an endangered species in light of the poor level of education the majority of people I converse with on the internet have received. Sometimes I need to read things aloud to understand them, they are so poorly written.

Now I have finished my grump :) I eagerly await everyone taking the piss and posting back to me in text speak! :D

Comments

[misskitten.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with you. It drives me insane aswell. I don't think it is at all necessary for people to speak or write in such a way. What doesnt help is that there are dictionaries available that tell people how to do it!

I have been guilty of using the odd "lol" or "rotfl" (which I have been led to believe means rolls on the floor laughing)

I hate text speak though... People (mainly teens) are taking it to be the way to spell things on a daily basis.

I blame bloody mobile phones. They used to limit you to a certain amount of characters to use and you never could carry on a text past this amount and automatically on to a new text until a couple of years ago. So people wanted to say as much as possible in a short amount of space as possible.

I really think that this country's standards are going down hill and into the gutter. I hate the more mainstream of society these days. I believe it is their fault that this country is going the way it is. They are horrible creatures who are lairy and ill mannered and ill tempered. They are illiterate, preferring to go and get drunk on the local common and have promiscuous and unprotected sex at 14 which ends up with the immature girl pregnant, the Father non-exsistant and the poor child being neglected and turned into another lairy, ill mannered, ill tempered and illiterate person to continue the cycle all over again because they cannot be bothered to change.

MAKES ME MAD!!!!

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

Exactly. She can't even be bothered to use the 'quote' feature on a message board, or basic HTML tagging, so I am at fault. How stupid is that? It's so ignorant and illiterate. I spent 7 years at a Catholic primary school having spelling, grammar and punctuation hammered into me, and now children are too 'delicate' to be criticised. I simply do not understand this.

You know what else bugs me? The nanny state telling people they cannot spank their children, and the silly twits who say 'all smacking is abuse'. Please. My mother beat me with a leather belt, starved me, and locked me in a cupboard. That's abuse. A quick tap on the backside is a reprimand. If more of these ill-mannered, badly behaved children were reprimanded, they might learn some basic manners and behave better. I think some children get by fine without ever being smacked, but some children need more physical discipline, and it's never given these days.

[(Anonymous)]

I couldn't agree more, I wish to god they'd bring back corporal punishment in school.

When are they going to realise that the downturn in discipline in schools is directly linked to the rise in youth crime.

Feral....*8)

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

I think they have realised, because youth crime became a huge problem so quickly after the abolition of corporal punishment.

However, can you see this administration ever admitting it is wrong?

[misskitten.livejournal.com]

Half the problem with kids today is because parents arent allowed to disipline their children properly. My Mum and Dad both knew how to slap the back of my legs when I was little if I were being naughty. It was never hard, but it didnt half sting! I would never have accused them of abuse. It certainly stopped me being naughty though.

Nowadays, kids can accuse their parents of false imprisonment if they are grounded! There was one 15 year old boy that called the police from his mobile phone when he was grounded and told to stay in his bedroom because he had done something really bad. He told them that his parents had imprisioned him in his room and werent letting him out. The police turned up and arrested the Father for False Imprisonment!

For crying out loud!

[czol.livejournal.com]

And that's just with parents. There was a newspaper story a few weeks ago, where a teacher was complaining it was impossible to discipline kids, because the brats are such complete little tossers they're impossible to handle, & if they do try to discipline an ill-behaved child, he or she complains & mummy or daddy go to a lawyer & sue, because the child's civil rights are being compromised!

[chaos-vs-order.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with everything that's been said here. What with teachers not being able to do anything with disruptive children in the classroom, the nanny state and this horrible compensation culture that seems to be spreading from the US, Britain is in a hopeless situation.

I've worked in Social Services for a few years now and it's made me very bitter towards certain groups of people (the sort that come in, demand money and refuse to find a job because they'll get more benefits if they don't work and have lots of children, oh and they'll sue if they don't get money!)

Anyway, back to text speak! I can't stand it, yes, I've used the odd 'lol' or 'lmao' but there's really no need for it and it makes the user look unintelligent.

Phew, I feel so much better now I've got that little rant off my chest! ;)

[czol.livejournal.com]

That's what really bugs me about the local forum I use - what's really annoying is that even most people signatures are misspelled (& really badly too). I can understand mistakes in a post - hey, everyone has typos! - but you'd think people would make an effort for their sig.

I don't even use 'txt speak' on a mobile. If I can't fit the message in, then I'll find some other way of shortening it, like leaving out unecessary words. On computers I'll use acronyms (LOL, WTF, etc), as they are a very quick & useful way of getting down a phrase or concept. And they're easy to interpret - a lot of them pre-date the internet, being used in personal ads, etc, & even if you don't know them they can often be easily worked out. But text message (or txt mssg *rolls eyes*) is just plain stupid.

[6inchheels.livejournal.com]

I don't have much of a rant myself, but I do know exactly how you feel. I can't read half of the messages on some boards, because the author is too lazy to spell the entire word out. I have a theory though, not as many kids are reading today as they used to-blame it on whatever you want, but lack of reading leads to lack of proper spelling and grammar, along with a decrease in intelligence I think. Just my opinion though.