A gl0bAl fenomenen: dclin3 in IQ
5 May 2008, 11:50 pm. View comments. Filed under Rants.
If tertiary students these days have difficulty not abbreviating every one-and-a-half words they type, what type of people do you suppose will eventually govern our country? Imagine our government authorities doing just that. Imagine legal rules governing our actions sntnsing theifs 2 3 mths imprisenmt.
We don't even have to go that far. Just imagining someone who has 1% text abbreviations in their reports and remaining in a respectable job position is a joke—at least in the current world.
Don't try to argue that (immensely) abbreviated writing is cool, quick, efficient, etc. It simply displays a lower level of your intellectual capacity.
Don't try to argue either, that 1337 and immature tYpInG lYk d1s is oh-so-sexy. They simply are nothing but stupid. I don't need to have to read at three words per minute due to your under-developed brain. And it's not because I'm the one with a low level of reading ability either. If five year old kids are being taught in primary how to spell words the correct way, then surely you need to upgrade your IQ if you tYp3 L1k3 aN iD10t after a whole decade of schooling.
Feel free to use "standard" abbreviations/acronyms such as uni, HTML, Mr, MSN because they are, agreed, consensual and standard.
I also understand how some abbreviations have grown to exist in our mainstream communications as a result of instant messaging e.g. lol, lmao, asl. Fine. They're also standard. (And because I use them too, of course.)
N im nt gona deny d fact tht abbrs sav char usage in txt msgs evn if—I don't personally use them.
Bt u srsly mk urslf luk lyk a dUmBaSs in comparison with someone else who can actually type and spell.
If you actually found the annoying abbreviated writing in this post easier to read than the rest of my writing, you might like to consult a doctor regarding your mental capabilities (or lack thereof). And I may have to finally recognise the fact that this powerful wave of backwardness will no doubt take over the world by 2030 and drown out the bare remnants of human intelligence. In which case, Amen.
29 Comments »
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wow... that abbreviated stuff was seriously hard to read lol
but yeah... I'm one of those people who just CAN'T for the life of god tolerate excessive abbreviations XD
and I think you would have noticed i spell the words in full even in text messages lol -
LOL Chatspeak
I made a whole speech ranting on ChatSpeak and I'm going to present the speech in a month's time -
So passionate, Ril-Ril!
However, well said, yep. -
I IS MUCH GLAD DAT DIS DUZ NOT ONLI HAPPENZ AT MAH UNI!!!!1!!1one
Someone I was sitting next to in my Psych lecture today was using chat speak to take notes... which is perfectly fine because it does save time, but I couldn't help but wonder if he uses chat speak in his essays and assignments.
I wouldn't be surprised considering the university I go to. They gave me an A- for the most disgusting essay I've ever written in my life. -
I hope to be dead by the time world leaders completely lose their writing capabilities! In that case, if it ever happens, let it be after 2090 or some other time very ahead in the future XD
I thought the purpose of writing was communicating but it seems like to most people, writing is a pain that they do because they are required to (school, work), not because they want to. That's the only way I could explain the fact that they do it so poorly, because they don't care at all. After all, there are so many other ways of communicating right now, that the written word seems to have gone "old school"... we are heading right back to prehistory :p -
This is so true. I've read that some people abbreviate words in their notes in school... I don't know how they can, it takes so long.
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Is it weird that I found that amusing? Probably not suprirsing in my current situation as I need to find as much amusement as possible..
Anyways. Although that did amuse, I agree. That chatspeak was hard to read... I am sometimes like sitting there figuring out the <i>meaning</i> of the abbreviated word.. -__-
(So, I thought the point was to make it more fast and efficient to read...? heh). -
I don't know anyone who wrote like that in uni., so I'm less passionate about the entire thing. I hardly care.
Language changes. Who can say that some of those (but definitely not all the abbreviations) won't become standard as well. I don't see how intelligence is related to it... laziness, yes - a lack of respect for English as it is, yes - silliness, perhaps - but intelligence? Teachers and professors should just fail students when they use their own version of English in assignments/formal reports because it makes it harder for people who aren't in their l33t circles or whatever to understand, but otherwise I don't care. 
I'm more put off by people who try to use English properly and fail.
But, honestly, I blame teachers/professors for this. If they refuse to have standards, then of course students will be lazy and write however they wish. The problem will be, at least, partly addressed if teachers FAIL students who take their English into creative new realms. -
Everyone says chat speak makes everything easier, but I disagree. Easier for you to type, maybe, but certainly not easier for anyone else to read. I think it's okay in some instances, like in IM, which is what its original purpose was. But full blogs written in chat speak? No!
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Everyone says chat speak makes everything easier, but I disagree. Easier for you to type, maybe, but certainly not easier for anyone else to read. I think it's okay in some instances, like in IM, which is what its original purpose was. But full blogs written in chat speak? No!
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Shorthand, i.e. intelligent abbreviation, is completely different than their "l337" and "chatspeak" and all that crap. Shorthand, which I sometimes use when I'm writing notes by hand, is quick and efficient, but it is also not meant for anyone else to read. These idiots' so called "abbreviations" are neither intelligent nor efficient, and therefore should stop trying to masquerade as legitimate shorthand. Shorthand is what smart people use; chatspeak is what dumb people use—-and they are used for different purposes entirely.
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Gosh, I can't even read those abbreviated text messages. Easier to type, harder to read.
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Well said, indeed. I think people need to find a happy medium. Shorthand writing is that happy medium. I have problems talking to people on IM if I get any replies vaguely resembling that. It's disgusting, it makes me think you're stupid and that I'm obviously not worth your time; therefore, if you can't bother typing "you" as opposed to "u", I'm not going to bother at all, thank you very much.
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Texting is worse there Rilla.
What is even worse is the word "w00t" is part of the dictionary. Very sad really.
Then again, why should we put more time into long sentences? OMG RLY? M@K1NG S3NT3NC3S MUH 2H0RT3R S0 MUCH 3@2IER!!!1 1T 2@\/3'2 US T1M3 LOLOLOL!!!1 Very typical when chatting somebody or play online games... -
There is someone floating around the blogosphere commenting on people's blogs in this "chatspeak" with crap spelling and it's driving me INSANE. No names but she may be easy enough to discover. XD
I've seen memos and emails being sent around with this kind of talk in my OFFICE and it's just so wrong, ugh! Shorthand does not equal professionalism. XP -
@Tharticus ... that l337 speak just took me around a minute to decipher... that "2@\/3'2" was killer lol
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Lol it sounded so passionate because it was a spur of the moment blog of passion thing.
Chantelle, I say intelligence because I know a lot of the chat-speakers who chat-speak because they don't know how to spell words correctly even if they have to. And students arguing that text language should be allowed in proper tests and essays because they can't get themselves to write fluently in correct English. Even worse is our Ministry of Education therefore allowing text spelling in high school final exams... I surely think all of them have intelligence problems.
Tharticus, I can just see how fluent you are at that kind of thing huh?? -
Not very fluent, and typing this type of language would make it more slower and more stupidity. The language of 1337 would be replacing such letters with numbers. One would be E = 3 or A = @. But my previous statement took more of my time about 3 minutes to make those letters into 1337 than it would be taking only 1 minute to make a small statement.
A small sample of the 1337 thingie I have taken is from Arfenhouse. Google it and watch the movie. *Warning, it may lower your IQ by 50%. XP -
Haha, I don't think you have to worry about it. People grow out of it. (Thank God!)
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It annoys me so much when my friends use things like that, just to be like that, even when they don't have to. For example, using 'yuh' instead of 'you'. What is the difference? Is 'yuh' cooler?
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Christine Lee: I swear some people do not grow out of it. When you see adults writing stuff like that on paper you wanna go crazy.
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you know what's equally bad? (well... maybe even worse) People who SAY those msn speak... like "lol" and "rofl" and sometimes even... oh... god forbid... "rofl-copter"... that... is disgusting....
e.g.
normal person: hey what's that on your head? oh... sorry it's just your face
retard person: LAWL!!!!!
normal person(s): .... what... the... fruitcake.... *note the censorship* -
Af! I hate it when my friends use chat speak. I don't care if people use lol, or whatever acronyms, but just reducing the words for the sound of the letters, it's plain stupid.
And the worse thing is that in spanish when people write, they exclude 'H' and use 'Y' instead of 'LL'. It's crazy! And they only do that to reduce the number of letters in words. They are killing grammar!
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Amen! I'm so glad my friends are intelligent enough to <em>not</em> use that sort of speak. Otherwise, I'd have no clue what they're trying to tell me
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I rarely understand chat speak. Most of the time I wind up having to ask just what people are meaning. As for texting, I still text the words out, but then I only text messages out to myself.
When I do chat (rarely) I type everything out long hand, lol. I only use the well-known abbreviations/acronyms that I understand. When I come up against ones I don't know I am usually pestering my friends to find out what it means. Like recently to find out what "emo" means, lol. -
Yea, I totally agree about the whole leet/chat speak thing. I don't mind as much through text messaging, but it's really annoying when you're trying to chat with someone, and it's got to where it's hard to understand.
Although what about those who apparently, have a hard time typing? It might be faster for them to miss a few letters even though they could still put in the effort, but that might take awhile. D: I know of a friend of mine who tries his best to type in full length words, but ends up accidentally misspelling them. He's still a decent typer and easy to understand, just have a lot of typos. -
Although what about those who apparently, have a hard time typing?
I don't understand how one would have a hard time typing. I'm going make an assumption that usually, those who can't avoid having lots of typos are those who can't actually spell words regardless of whether they're typing or writing. -
Technically, I don't mind abbreviation during chat, but when a person is blogging it, now that's a different story. It screams. "I'm a 13 years old girl, who is dumb and can't write well." That just cause me to move on to the next blog.
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WELL SAID.