I weep for the future.

jimmychung

jimmychung

Active member
these r da ppl who will run da world in jst a cuple decades.

Unbelievable how fucking stupid kids are.

STUDENTS USE IM-LINGO IN ESSAYS

ORLANDO, Florida (AP) -- Middle school teacher Julia Austin is noticing a new generation of errors creeping into her pupils' essays.

Sure, they still commit the classic blunders -- like the commonly used "ain't." But an increasing number of Austin's eighth-graders also submit classwork containing "b4," "ur," "2" and "wata" -- words that may confuse adults but are part of the teens' everyday lives.

This "instant messaging-speak" or "IM-speak" emerged more than a decade ago. Used in e-mail and cell phone text messages, most teens are familiar with this tech talk and use it to flirt, plan dates and gossip.

But junior high and high school teachers nationwide say they see a troubling trend: The words have become so commonplace in children's social lives that the techno spellings are finding their way into essays and other writing assignments.

"The IM-speak is so prevalent now," said Austin, a language arts teacher at Stonewall Jackson Middle School in Orlando. "I'm always having to instruct my students against using it."

Vicki A. Davis, a high school teacher at Westwood Schools in Camilla, Georgia, said she even finds the abbreviated words in term papers.

"I'm Southern, but I wouldn't use the sayings, "squeal like a pig" or "kick the bucket," in formal writing (because) some people may not understand," Davis said. "IM-speak should be treated the same way."

Fourteen-year-old Brandi Concepcion, a pupil of Austin's, said wit, da and dat -- used in place of with, the and that -- sometimes creep into her homework.

"I write like that in the rough draft, but I try to catch the mistakes before I turn in the final draft," she said.

Some educators, like David Warlick, 54, of Raleigh, North Carolina, see the young burgeoning band of instant messengers as a phenomenon that should be celebrated. Teachers should credit their students with inventing a new language ideal for communicating in a high-tech world, said Warlick, who has authored three books on technology in the classroom.

And most avoid those pitfalls once they enter college, said Larry Beason, director of freshman composition at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama.

"Some of the same kids that I teach now were probably guilty of techno spellings in high school," Beason said. "But most students realize that they need to put their adolescent spellings behind them by the time they get to college."
 
Words convey meaning... if the meaning is insightful, then who cares what words are used? Saying these kids are dumb because they use different words is like saying japanese people are stupid because they use different letters.

Of course, it's true that a complex vocabulary is much more expressive than a limited one, but using some "internet-isms" doesn't necessarily imply that the kids don't have good vocabularies or writing skills.
 
who knows this could be another evolution of the english language... but i doubt it, you cant dumb enough to use IM-text all your life
 
No, it's not the same as saying japanese people are stupid because they use different letters. Japanese people are using THEIR language correctly, whereas these kids are butchering english. And it does imply that they don't have good writing skills or good vocabularies. It also sounds unintelligent, and looks makes any point they're trying to make seem irrelevant since they can't even use propper english to construct a sentence. If they submit a college application essay with "dat" and "b4" in it, they won't have a shot in hell at getting in. In the real world, you need to know how to communicate effectively in order to be taken seriously, no matter what industry you go into.
 
what troubles me is that kids can't figure out how to use spellcheck. i mean i think it's pretty straight forward to see a red underline an automatically think "hey, this shit is wrong!". damn.
 
I think every teacher should carry a small taser weapon in class. Everytime a kid writes 'b4', or '2', or 'cya' they should be allowed to taser said child into submission or unconciousness.
 
What makes you think we are all using our language correctly? In "Ye Olde Times", they wrote s as f and most of their words were spelled differently, among other things. And yet, that's the root of our language. Languages, therefore, must evolve.

It is irrelevant whether or not people will take them seriously or whether or not they will get into college. The question is whether they can use a different written language (different because it has some words that are different from proper english like 'B4', etc.) without losing layers of meaning and the answer is yes, just like how users of languages other than english can still construct the same meanings we can.

In college I write with a conversational style that would probably have gotten me Ds and Fs in high school, and yet I get As on the vast majority of my papers because I know how to put together a piece of writing that flows well. It's not important what tone my writing has as long as it isn't so hard to understand that it distracts from the meaning of the words and the cohesiveness of the whole thing.

If they are using "internet-isms" in their papers, then yes, they probably aren't the best writers. But I doubt they are worse than kids of equivalent education and intelligence who happen not to use e-speak in their papers. The english language, too, will inevitably evolve and change in the future, and who's to say these words that are 'wrong' now won't be the proper way of saying things in the future?
 
It seems to me that though language does evolve, the kids who actually put something like "so b4 da party we all wr @ ryans house" are going to be the stupid ones. There is a direct correlation between being able to construct a correct sentence and overall intellegence.
 
But that's a totally valid sentence... it follows consistent grammatical rules, which is really the definition of valid language.

If the kids grow up using different language, they're going to use that language. It doesn't make much of a difference how smart they are.
 
I for one am worried about two things, and this is one.

The other one is MTV and some of the programming they have..

I just secretly wonder if some people who watch MTV think "I don't have enough drama, I need to find out about other peoples' drama so I can fill that void"
 
yeah, that's why I used it. It is grammatically correct, but what I'm saying that regardless of that, the kids who use that kind of sentence are on average, of lower intellegence than their peers who don't write like that.
 
evolve? are you kidding me? you actually defend this cutting corner technique of writing english?

that kind of language has no place in the future of our language.

you obviously don't see the big picture, imagine if, a chance in hell, that this form of writing actually became tolerated. if i was an employer and i saw this short-form approach towards english, i woud think, 'well if this person can't muster the finger energy to write before instead of b4, then imagine what kind of work ethic that person would have' they would do everything half ass and cut corners because if they can't write before rather then b4 properly then imagine what else they won't want to do properly in their daily work duty.
 
For some strange reason that makes sence. But just think about it man... my 8 year old brother is using all this crap now, and I'm honestly scared to how he turns out writing. I know it's commonn sense for me not to type that into papers, but an 8 year old should know how to speak the language properly, not using AIM lingo.
 
I can't prove anything, but I can pretty much guarantee it has much more to do with their social context than their intelligence... because that's how languages are learned. Universally, the language, dialect, etc. that kids learn is completely determined by their social surroundings.
 
I think its good because the kids that can spell correctly will gain that extra edge, if other kids can't spell, GOOD!
 
A lot of people use "shorthand" techniques to write, and I don't think less of them for it.

I'm not saying these kids are going to be successful if they use these words in inappropriate situations. I'm saying that it doesn't mean they are necessarily less intelligent than kids that don't use these internet abbreviations.

I'm talking in more abstract terms about language's function as a tool of communication. Whether I use a hammer or an old beer bottle to pound a nail into my wall, the task has been accomplished to the same effect.
 
Let me clarify here a little.

I agree with you guys that using this kind of language in many situations is inappropriate. To echo what I said earlier, it's about as inappropriate as trying to speak japanese in the US and expecting everyone to understand you and take you seriously.

What I'm debating is the claim that these kids are "stupid". They are, as I've said, no more stupid than kids who happened to grow up in situations where IM lingo didn't play a big role in the development of their communication and writing skills.

If you guys think back to middle school, maybe you'll remember how clueless you were at writing. I sure do. Learning to write well is a process that begins around that time of a kid's education, so of course they don't know what language is appropriate and what isn't.
 
it is funny cause some kids do it on purpose so the teachers get mad...i think its chill kna mean
 
Same here, and most of my professors appreciate it.

I don't really write any differently than I speak. Sure, some things don't really carry over well from text to speaking, but my tone and word usage stays pretty much the same. Just because something is supposed to be "intelligent" doesn't mean they have to use huge words that aren't normally a part of their vocabulary. Now, that isn't to say either that kids shouldn't seek to build their vocabulary because I think that is important too. The part about the article that got me the most was where the teacher said she was from the South, but wouldn't use a term like "kick the bucket" because some people might not understand it. So what if they don't understand it? You know what I do when I dont understand something I read, I LOOK IT UP. If I'm writing my senior thesis and for some reason I think it's appropriate to use the term "kick the bucket" I'm damn well going to do it. 

And the whole IM-speak stuff was bound to happen. I catch myself sometimes using b4, ur, etc. But I think there are worse mistakes that I see even people with college degrees making. Things like messing up the forms of your, and you're, their, there, and they're. Those piss me off because people don't understand why it's wrong. And the to v.s. too, or its/it's. These are the mistakes that, to me, show a lack of intelligence. 
 
i really doubt... with the current state of things... that the world will even exist much longer... now that thought just kinda makes everything irrelevant doesnt it?
 
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