# Certain students are seemingly illiterate



## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

Wow. I never interact with any people of my class (they are 11 years younger than me), but now I did for the first time due to a group assignment.

Seriously, I started reading their writing on Facebook. Oh my.. it's like reading alien language. I swear. I have a very hard time reading their writing - if you even call that writing. This is how they write:

"omg ikr w shud rly get to rd tht book. i mean wtf dat guy snds rly srs u dnt wnna mss w/ him. i dunno wen u r supzsd to snd it n but liek i hav odther thngs to do" 

I swear. It's like all the vowels on their keyboard are broken.
Imagine having to read pages full of comments like these. It's a headache.

This is shameful. They are university students for crying out loud. They should show some intellect. I look down on them.


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## thisismeyo (Feb 15, 2013)

da internet and txting has created a new language of short form wrds, its not a bad thing


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## .95596 (Aug 24, 2012)

I read in the newspaper that the English vernacular is changing in written and oral communication at such a rate that in 5-10 years we will have transitioned to another language since people use words like "like" and other words frequently. 

It all started with Val-talk in the early 1980s, which spread across the States and has been only made worse with advances in technology and tv shows that display incredibly inane people. The later has caused such a decline in syntax and rhetoric. It's sad when you look through books from the mid-20th century and actually see proper writing. 

I also believe that it is due to the fact that people read literature less and less so they don't know how to form complete sentences or communicate their ideas efficiently and effectively.


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## eshng (Feb 25, 2013)

I know exactly what you mean. I work at a university and it's embarrassing how many students who are 20+ in age who still need their mommies and daddies to do literally everything for them.

What's worse is that their parents actually let their kids treat them that way. It's saddening that they need their hands held as if they're 5 year olds.


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

shyguy1990 said:


> I read in the newspaper that the English vernacular is changing in written and oral communication at such a rate that in 5-10 years we will have transitioned to another language since people use words like "like" and other words frequently.
> 
> It all started with Val-talk in the early 1980s, which spread across the States and has been only made worse with advances in technology and tv shows that display incredibly inane people. The later has caused such a decline in syntax and rhetoric. It's sad when you look through books from the mid-20th century and actually see proper writing.
> 
> I also believe that it is due to the fact that people read literature less and less so they don't know how to form complete sentences or communicate their ideas efficiently and effectively.


I agree completely. :yes By the way, that picture in your avatar was taken in France?

If there is one thing to describe youngsters these days.. at least at my university.. yes, they are inane idiots. They have no respect for anyone or anything. Bah.


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

eshng said:


> I know exactly what you mean. I work at a university and it's embarrassing how many students who are 20+ in age who still need their mommies and daddies to do literally everything for them.
> 
> What's worse is that their parents actually let their kids treat them that way. It's saddening that they need their hands held as if they're 5 year olds.


Yeah there was this one classmate of mine and he was complaining to the others how he didn't have lunch today because his mother didn't make his sandwiches. I thought to myself "is he joking?!" and apparently he wasn't. He doesn't even have the skill to go to a supermarket and buy his own food. That is just.. wow. I have no words for this. It's a disgrace.


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## .95596 (Aug 24, 2012)

s12345 said:


> I agree completely. :yes By the way, that picture in your avatar was taken in France?
> 
> If there is one thing to describe youngsters these days.. at least at my university.. yes, they are inane idiots. They have no respect for anyone or anything. Bah.


Yup, my avatar picture was taken in France on one of my study abroad programmes.

I can completely relate to how you feel, since I live with a 28 and a 25 year old who are still in college and always party/hang out and in reality are unfit for university. Oh well, at least I won't have to deal with it for much longer.


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

Anyway, as I was saying: today my professor asked us a question. "Whom of you goes do their own grocery shopping". No one raised their hand except me. Wow. Pathetic. Youngsters are worth nothing. They have nothing to contribute to society. They don't even do their own grocery shopping for crying out loud. They don't know what it's like to work hard. Someone ought to show them. Losers that they are.


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## Droidsteel (Mar 22, 2012)

s12345 said:


> If there is one thing to describe youngsters these days.. at least at my university.. yes, they are inane idiots. They have no respect for anyone or anything. Bah.


You used the term 'these days' implying that 'youngsters' are different now than they were in any other period in history...


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## geese (Aug 25, 2012)

get over it lol
People who write in the way you described probably don't do so in their academic work.
"Someone ought to show them. Losers that they are". You sound really judgmental and pretentious, and if you didn't have such a high post count I would say you were trolling.


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## diamondheart89 (Mar 21, 2011)

Remember there's a difference between choosing to write like that and being unable to write any other way.


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## Droidsteel (Mar 22, 2012)

diamondheart89 said:


> Remember there's a difference between choosing to write like that and being unable to write any other way.


Exactly this. People use text language to save time, its not like they are all writing essays like that :roll


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

Droidsteel said:


> You used the term 'these days' implying that 'youngsters' are different now than they were in any other period in history...


That's because they are. In the 80's, kids weren't hysterical ADD kids like the ones in my class.


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

geese said:


> get over it lol
> People who write in the way you described probably don't do so in their academic work.
> "Someone ought to show them. Losers that they are". You sound really judgmental and pretentious, and if you didn't have such a high post count I would say you were trolling.


I guess you are a little teen as well. No adults use the teen word 'trolling'.


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

Droidsteel said:


> Exactly this. People use text language to save time, its not like they are all writing essays like that :roll


Well Mr. layman, I am going to apply to MIT. Guess why? I have the skills for it. I maintain my intellect and I am very severe on myself when it comes to everything. Unlike you people, I have the skills and discipline required in order to study the very difficult programs that MIT offers.

Your laziness and nonchalance infuriates me.


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## FerociousFleur (Oct 30, 2012)

Is this a lower level undergraduate class? If so, remember, those kids are probably 18-20 years old, fresh out of high school and possibly still living at home. At that age, most kids don't do things like grocery shopping because they don't have any money -- they're just entering the workforce. They're still learning how to be adults.

If you're in graduate school, or at some Ivy League university, then I guess you have a point... but it's just Facebook. Sometimes people "dumb themselves down" when they're around friends and family because that helps them to fit in. It doesn't mean they're "losers," "inane idiots," or that you should "look down on them."

I think your anger toward your classmates is unfair. Are you *really* mad at them for the way they communicate on a social networking site (because that seems like a trivial issue that you should let go), or is it something else?


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

FerociousFleur said:


> If you're in graduate school, or at some Ivy League university, then I guess you have a point... but it's just Facebook. Sometimes people "dumb themselves down" when they're around friends and family because that helps them to fit in.


Fitting in is for insecure people. Yes, it is an undergrad program.



> I think your anger toward your classmates is unfair. Are you *really* mad at them for the way they communicate on a social networking site (because that seems like a trivial issue that you should let go), or is it something else?


I am angry at them for being so lazy in writing. People with a lack of discipline really piss me off. They need to learn to toughen up and be real men. The real world is not shaped for molly coddled sheep. There is lazy writing, missing a few punctuation details and misspelling the occasional word by mistake and there is completely doing it on purpose - writing in a horrendous culmination of characters. It's an insult to the language. These kids need better parenting. They need parents that tell them all the time they need to work hard! That includes writing correctly all the time!

I miss the old days of education.


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## geese (Aug 25, 2012)

Seriously though, you should stop getting so worked up about something you have no control over. There are much more important things to get angry at.


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

geese said:


> Seriously though, you should stop getting so worked up about something you have no control over. There are much more important things to get angry at.


I don't think you understand the consequences of population illiteracy. It has effects on job opportunities, on our economy, the National Debt Product, on everything. Think about it.


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## Landry (Feb 25, 2013)

s12345 said:


> Anyway, as I was saying: today my professor asked us a question. "Whom of you goes do their own grocery shopping". No one raised their hand except me. Wow. Pathetic. Youngsters are worth nothing. They have nothing to contribute to society. They don't even do their own grocery shopping for crying out loud. They don't know what it's like to work hard. Someone ought to show them. Losers that they are.


Does claiming that "youngsters" are worth nothing and contribute nothing to society make you feel better about yourself? Are you insecure because these people are starting their lives now, while you're 11 years down the road and at the same point that they are? You sound like the loser in this situation, and putting other people down isn't going to change that. Sorry your 18-20 year old classmates, who still live with their parents (likely in order to avoid crippling debt as much as possible) don't go grocery shopping as much as you'd like them to, but that doesn't mean that they are worthless or don't know how to work hard.


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## Landry (Feb 25, 2013)

FerociousFleur said:


> Is this a lower level undergraduate class? If so, remember, those kids are probably 18-20 years old, fresh out of high school and possibly still living at home. At that age, most kids don't do things like grocery shopping because they don't have any money -- they're just entering the workforce. They're still learning how to be adults.
> 
> If you're in graduate school, or at some Ivy League university, then I guess you have a point... but it's just Facebook. Sometimes people "dumb themselves down" when they're around friends and family because that helps them to fit in. It doesn't mean they're "losers," "inane idiots," or that you should "look down on them."
> 
> I think your anger toward your classmates is unfair. Are you *really* mad at them for the way they communicate on a social networking site (because that seems like a trivial issue that you should let go), or is it something else?


You worded this way better than I could have. OP is getting way too worked up over how people in his class type in their free time for personal matters. I think he is either really insecure about something or has some sort of mental problem.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

thisismeyo said:


> da internet and txting has created a new language of short form wrds, its not a bad thing


It iz if it carries ovr to rl.

I have also wondered about the art and status of handwriting. "It just takes too long to write things". :roll


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

ColeO said:


> Does claiming that "youngsters" are worth nothing and contribute nothing to society make you feel better about yourself? Are you insecure because these people are starting their lives now, while you're 11 years down the road and at the same point that they are? You sound like the loser in this situation, and putting other people down isn't going to change that. Sorry your 18-20 year old classmates, who still live with their parents (likely in order to avoid crippling debt as much as possible) don't go grocery shopping as much as you'd like them to, but that doesn't mean that they are worthless or don't know how to work hard.


I am further in my life than they are. I have a degree already. This is my second degree because I chose to study it. ;-)


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

Whoops. My hand just slipped over the addtoignorelist button again. Oh well.


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## jenndorward (Mar 3, 2013)

For the most part, I try not to be lazy and use shortcuts. However, when texting certain people I will purposely misspell and use shortcuts to make it look like I'm not trying too hard. I know, I know, I shouldn't care what others think. I can't help but do so, considering I've had people comment about how I try too hard on the Internet especially. (Hint: when using tumblr, you will be judged if you use proper capitalization and punctuation all the time).


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## tieffers (Jan 26, 2013)

It's sometimes really hard for me to talk with people I went to school with online or through texting, because I have to sit there and decode every butchered word to get the gist of what they're saying.

I don't know what it is. Might be due to the fact that no one really reads anymore. The only required reading I had in high school was Huck Finn and then The Kite Runner in my AP English class. (One would think AP English would have some heavier required reading. I hoped in vain for Dostoyevsky.) One time the teacher made the mistake of making students read parts of the book aloud, and they couldn't figure out how to pronounce most anything.

On the rare occasion I got overly excited about something and I forgot to oversimplify (totally not being egotistical, I swear, this is just how it happened), my friends would get really irritated with me for using words they didn't know. I spent a lot of time coming up with simpler synonyms to words so that they could understand. It actually upset me a lot, for some reason. I remember one...I had to explain what a physician was to a friend. No, she wasn't mentally handicapped. This was in my senior year of high school.

Remembering high school is seriously depressing me. I'm stopping now. But I'm glad OP made this thread; nice to know I'm not the only one who has noticed this.


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## Landry (Feb 25, 2013)

s12345 said:


> Whoops. My hand just slipped over the addtoignorelist button again. Oh well.


And you ignore people who don't agree with your radical view that all young people these days are "worth nothing", "have nothing to contribute to society" and are "losers", which you concluded after seeing the way maybe a handful of your classmates typed in an informal setting with friends. You may want to consider taking a statistics class to learn about appropriate sample sizes as well as sample bias, a philosophy class to learn something about critical thinking and maybe a mental health class to figure out why you are flipping out over the way a classmate typed to one of their friends on Facebook.


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## Letmebe (Dec 17, 2012)

I am actually highly competent in the American sub variety of the English language, I just choose to abuse it some of the time.

As for the issue of literacy, I could literally write a ten volume set of books on the topic and how it seems to forecast an orwellian future for this generation; that I am unfortunately a part of.

It seems to me that the illiteracy has begun to proliferate so quickly that one day soon someone could rule the USA merely because they had a better grasp of the English language than the masses.

Sort of a scary thought right?


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## Droidsteel (Mar 22, 2012)

Letmebe said:


> I am actually highly competent in the American sub variety of the English language, I just choose to abuse it some of the time.
> 
> As for the issue of literacy, I could literally write a ten volume set of books on the topic and how it seems to forecast an orwellian future for this generation; that I am unfortunately a part of.
> 
> ...


Ok, are you actually suggesting, after all the wars and atrocities and genocides caused by the past 3-4 generations, that THIS generation will be the downfall of mankind due to POOR SPELLING!?

Oh and by the way, more people in the world can read and write at the moment than in any other period in history.


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## Charmander (Sep 5, 2012)

s12345 said:


> Anyway, as I was saying: today my professor asked us a question. "Whom of you goes do their own grocery shopping". No one raised their hand except me. *Wow. Pathetic. Youngsters are worth nothing. They have nothing to contribute to society. They don't even do their own grocery shopping for crying out loud. They don't know what it's like to work hard. Someone ought to show them. Losers that they are.*


What a stupid thing to say.

Regardless, going back to your original point, I do agree that spelling and grammar does seem to be slipping a little. It's a bit too much to look down on people like that though. Their upbringing may have been different to yours.


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## marcv2013 (Feb 27, 2013)

shyguy1990 said:


> I read in the newspaper that the English vernacular is changing in written and oral communication at such a rate that in 5-10 years we will have transitioned to another language since people use words like "like" and other words frequently.
> 
> It all started with Val-talk in the early 1980s, which spread across the States and has been only made worse with advances in technology and tv shows that display incredibly inane people. The later has caused such a decline in syntax and rhetoric. It's sad when you look through books from the mid-20th century and actually see proper writing.
> 
> I also believe that it is due to the fact that people read literature less and less so they don't know how to form complete sentences or communicate their ideas efficiently and effectively.


 I totally agree. It sucks I can't have a proper, intellectually and grammatically correct dialogue with anybody my age because they don't seem to care much for it.


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

tieffers said:


> I don't know what it is. Might be due to the fact that no one really reads anymore.


This is true. One of the inventors of the World Wide Web discussed this at an important lecture of his I attended. People are going from keyboards to tablet PCs.. to the level where you don't have to read but simply touch.. like a toddler using his finger to paint colors on paper. Retardation if you ask me..


> The only required reading I had in high school was Huck Finn and then The Kite Runner in my AP English class. (One would think AP English would have some heavier required reading. I hoped in vain for Dostoyevsky.) One time the teacher made the mistake of making students read parts of the book aloud, and they couldn't figure out how to pronounce most anything.


See, that's what I don't understand. Doesn't anyone read books anymore? What have they been doing in high school if they don't understand the most basic of vocabulary? I think this is shameful. I am currently reading the book 'A short history of nearly everything' by Bill Bryson. It is the best book I ever read up to now. It is quite a moderately difficult level to read on. =)


> It actually upset me a lot, for some reason. I remember one...I had to explain what a physician was to a friend. No, she wasn't mentally handicapped. This was in my senior year of high school.


You are only eighteen years old. I am astonished by your early level of maturity. You should see the kids in my class. They act like stupid little toddlers. Little babies in diapers.. seriously.



> Remembering high school is seriously depressing me. I'm stopping now. But I'm glad OP made this thread; nice to know I'm not the only one who has noticed this.


High school depressed me as well. I hope you will pursue a great academic career. =)


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

Letmebe said:


> I am actually highly competent in the American sub variety of the English language, I just choose to abuse it some of the time.
> 
> As for the issue of literacy, I could literally write a ten volume set of books on the topic and how it seems to forecast an orwellian future for this generation; that I am unfortunately a part of.
> 
> ...


Indeed.. Indeed..


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