Or more accurately, has the ease of use and ready availability of modern communications (the Internet, cheap long distance, and mobile phones) made us more careless with how we try to communicate with one another?

I can remember the days when a letter was the cheapest, most accessible way to communicate with people whom one couldn't meet face-to-face. At least the way that I was brought up, writing a letter was a ritualistic exercise: One had to have something to say, and it had to be put on the paper using proper grammar and good penmanship. My mom would often read letters from her relatives out loud (in Spanish), and I can remember how well they all wrote: they always had interesting things to say, they provided a complete mental picture about the events that they were trying to convey, and as compositions, their letters had a nice structure.

Today, one can put together an e-mail, text message, or a message board post much more quickly than a handwritten letter and send it out for much less money. Since I started following online discussion groups in the early 1990s, I have noted that people online are often in too much of a hurry to pay attention to grammar, spelling, or the clarity of their communications. Often, disagreements and animosity occur simply because the reader(s) interpret the posting in a way different than that intended by the author (I have seen that happen on this message board).

Am I correct in my observation of declining communications quality, or am I just an old fart who can't adapt to the new streamlined English?

I think it's an issue.

Look at the recent new thread title on the radio side of this board: "have u hear daria show?"

?!?

At least they got the question mark right!

There are some good things to this however. When my kids where chatting only, their general writing skills, along with some of their command of the English language, diminished.

Moving to a better venue, e-mail and My Space, improved things for some reason. Their ability to type went way up, and that made more complex expression easier.

IMHO, the old days more or less forced this. Nobody wants to write a letter that's crap! It tends to stick around, does not make sense given the time issues, and might not be read at all!

Today, it's easy to bang out yes no maybe so answers to stupid crap. I think that's a net loss, for a whole lot of reasons.

It is also possible to really express yourself quickly and in a solid way, far easier than it used to be. That's a net gain, particularly when combined with spell check and Google!

So, it comes down to worth. Us older farts, teachers and employers need to hold the line on language arts and they will end up being valuable to the up and coming generation. If we don't do this, it's not gonna happen for a lot of them.

Even if this comes to pass, the core elements of language and reasoning are still important. If you want to persuade, educate or perhaps just want to carry a little weight, the tools remain there, unchanged by the medium that carries them.

And each new medium requires readjustments by the senders and receivers. I can remember *so* many times early on in email and chat rooms when the idea being typed was *not* being interpreted properly - it was usually taken much more offensively than intended. Wa have had to learn to adjust our way of typing - to add little asterisks for emphasis as I did above, or develop "emoticons" to get around the sterility of the typed word. (a handwritten letter allows for much more range of expression).

It is interesting to consider the different levels of dialogue that exist. Generally, the posts on this board are pretty articulate, which reflects the intellect and purpose of the writer. Compare that to the average text message ("r u ok? I b hm sn - c u thn!") which is the equivalent of idle chatter. Since there is essentially no substance to the message, what's the big deal if grammatical conventions are tossed in the dumpster?

I do agree with kskd's insight about the permanence of the written word when put to paper, versus the ephemeral nature of online chatting. However, it is very unsettling to find random items I launched into the internet 15 years ago still coming up on Google searches. The internet may have a longer memory than my shoebox full of love letters from my wife.

But also keep in mind the title of this thread. The modern technology you are talking about is really just an updated delivery system for one of the oldest forms of commnunication, the written word. In that sense I don't see terribly radical changes, but perhaps an evolution of the english language, an evolution which is always occuring anyway. For truly modern technological breakthroughs in communication I would begin to analyze the surge of YouTube, camera phones and other non-print point-to-point media.

Missing, you’re absolutely right about holding the line on language arts.

A number of years ago, I went to a management training seminar at our corporate office in Jackson, MS.

One segment of the seminar covered business communications. They actually told us that we should use smaller simpler words even if it took several "smaller" words to replace one "bigger" word.

It's amazing, even on this board, how many misspelled words and incomplete sentences there are. Some of the emails I get are really choice!

I copy and paste my posts into MS Word, run spell check then paste the corrected one back before I actually post it.

I have to. I'm a horrible typist. I actually got kicked out of typing class in high school! Hey, it was 1974 and I had no intention of being a secretary. Little did I know that 20 years later I'd spend half my time in front of a keyboard!!

One simple statement covers it;
The Dumbing Down of America!

Spelling is one thing I will let slip when using venues like this.

I don't spell check anything posted here ever. Honestly I really don't care, so long as the words themselves convey what I mean.

Grammar remains important. Having rich and robust structure is more important than vocabulary and vocabulary is tied to spelling, so that's my particular balance.

(And I know I've hosed at least one grammar element in this post for sure!)

I've found the act of spell checking, conversations like these, steals something vital. It's far better to just be human, put it on the board and have your real ideas and impressions be heard, not those filtered ones you allow to be heard after some reconsideration that comes with the spell checker.

Besides, you get to write, "(however you spell it!)" once in a while! You know you want to...

One other element of support for my choice in spelling:

a rencect stduy fuond taht peolpe can raed misspellnigs at naerly the smae rtae they can porperly splleed constructs, given the first and last letters are correct.

It gets better the more you work at it. The spell checker in most programs is pretty cool. I use it all the time for writing that is more formal than this. But there is one danger! It often fixes little things, thus reinforcing bad habits without you even knowing it!

I found this out after having learned I typed: "teh" instead of: "the" nearly 90 percent of the time. I still do it more than I used to before doing some longer writing on Microsoft Word.

Today, I turn that thing off. Spell check at the end, while formatting and I'm getting back into solid shape where typing is concerned.

Talking about the online community, I think it actually just liberated those who were too embarrassed to write letters. They aren't just young people, I've spoken with middle aged people online that made me cringe with their english abilities.

To me, writing encompasses ALL things to do with english. You don't truly understand a word if you can't spell it correctly, I guess I'm just a nerd about it. I think vocabulary, spelling, grammar-- all of it go hand in hand.

The lexicon of the text message world drives me nuts. I hate misspelling a word just to misspell it. Sometimes to be kitschy, I'll try to misspell a word on a message board to be a geek...but it's really hard not to correct it.

Yes, I'm a grammar nazi. Yes, I'm a spelling nazi. But I'm proud of my language. Everyone else should be too.

>>>"Spelling is one thing I will let slip when using venues like this."

Mozilla has spell check live at all times. It underlines words that are misspelled. You then right click for the correct spelling. Very simple and effective.

And, to quote Kurt Vonnegut, "It's not the knowledge, but how it's used...."

From Player Piano...<333 that book.

> Hey, it was 1974 and I had no intention of being > a secretary. Little did I know that 20 years
> later I'd spend half my time in front of a
> keyboard!!

Amen! My high school offered two typing related courses: "typing" and "keyboarding." The keyboarding class taught touch-typing on a QWERTY keyboard and was meant to be applicable to using a typewriter as well as a computer. The typing class was a more advanced class that went into the details of formatting different types of memos and correspondence on a typewriter. During my senior year (1992-93), I took the keyboarding class as an elective because I thought that it would be useful to become a better typist for the purposes of writing formal reports in school. Little did I realize how ubiquitous computer keyboards would become in the next few years. When I was in high school, I could not have envisioned the office environment of today, where EVERYBODY has a personal computer or terminal at his/her desk, and most of the day's work is done on the computer!

Spell checking is a tool, but I share the concern that others have expressed about it becoming a crutch. I proofread my posts, but typically don't spell-check them--just as I might have done when composing a handwritten assignment in high school. At work, I have the spell-checking turned on on my e-mail to avoid sending messages with embarrassing mistakes to customers. One has to be careful with the suggestions that spell-chekers make, especially on people's names. For instance, we occasionally correspond with an engineer named Doron; the spell-checker suggests that the correct spelling for this is "moron."

AFAIK D NET IMHO IS AFAICT AISI NOT A PROB. IJWYTK WYSIWUG!

L8R G8R

Has anyone else heard the theory that a lot of younger people intentionally spell incorrectly, use poor grammar, etc., as a way to stand out? In essence, a form of rebellion. I wouldn't discount that.

Just look at texting....it is somewhat of an art form these days. I have to look at acronym dictionaries to decipher it most of the time! Ebonics, texting, IM.......all contributing factors in poor spelling and grammar.

Darktemper--It takes me a lot longer to decipher your text-ese than it would for me to read the words if they were spelled out...and you find yourself having to consult dictionaries to figure out these acronyms!! I love the irony!

I just threw that up there as an example....I am text illiterate....got those from a website!

The Text deciphered:
"As far as I know the internet is as far as I can tell as I see it not a problem. I just want you to know what you see is what you get!"
"See you later alligator"

And I thought my son was using an old telco term in his texting all this time "POTS" plain old telephone system........nope.......Parent over the shoulder! LOL

I think another reason for texting abbreviations is that the SMS (short message system) on a cell phone is limited to 160 characters vs. something like a Blackberry that you can send full emails to.