Tuesday, July 12, 2011
The misuse of emoticons and textspeak
I spent a solid year in IRC Undernet #philosophy and one fellow COMPULSIVELY ended each and every long long post (most of which was in postmodernist style) ENDING EACH AND EVERY POST WITH :) :) :) ... AND I could not understand why any grown adult with some sort of education would write as if they were some five year old moron... but now, I see it more and more and more and people, INTELLIGENT people who are saying meaningful things will end the sentence with :p ... so does that mean if you were addressing a senate investigation committee or giving an address at a college graduation that at the end you would stick out your tongue and make a farting raspberry sound??? What the hell does it MEAN when you use those emoticons with every other sentence.... when you use something constantly, it loses meaning.
It is like some kind of mental illness which is slowly taking over even the most intelligent and educated parts of society. What would you think if you read an address from the president and at the end you say :-P .... Good Lord! Take a look in the mirror and get a hold on yourselves.. what sort if idiocy will come next.... I ACTUALLY had a 60 year old woman PRONOUNCE LOL to me as in (Loll rhymes with Doll) .. it is an ABBREVIATION for Laugh Out Loud... it should not become a word LOLL in conversation. And a boy on a skate board said to his friends some textspeak SPELLED OUT L-M-F-A-O but at least I give him credit for spelling it out and not saying LemFO ... but wait a year and people will be saying LEMFO, and AFEK (away from keyboard)
It is like some kind of mental illness which is slowly taking over even the most intelligent and educated parts of society. What would you think if you read an address from the president and at the end you say :-P .... Good Lord! Take a look in the mirror and get a hold on yourselves.. what sort if idiocy will come next.... I ACTUALLY had a 60 year old woman PRONOUNCE LOL to me as in (Loll rhymes with Doll) .. it is an ABBREVIATION for Laugh Out Loud... it should not become a word LOLL in conversation. And a boy on a skate board said to his friends some textspeak SPELLED OUT L-M-F-A-O but at least I give him credit for spelling it out and not saying LemFO ... but wait a year and people will be saying LEMFO, and AFEK (away from keyboard)
Harmful because our world is degenerating.... Abraham Lincoln had ONLY ONE YEAR of formal education... and yet was able to write prose which was the equivalent of the King James Bible in tone and solemnity. Dwight David Eisenhower wrote a long book of memoirs and his editor commented that it was so well done that it required very little editing. In fact, look at the Federalist Papers and some of the editorials written by farmers (not scholars) and notice the exquisite style. You should take a look some time at what common country folks wrote in the 19th century. They did not have the resources that we have of all human knowledge being on line. Most classics prior to 1923 are in public domain and downloadable for free and available in MP3 from http://librivox.org ... but how many avail themselves of these treasures. They are devouring Harry Potter novels which are poorly written. I am glad that I will be dead soon because this world which I see is declining, degenerating in so many ways, and no one even realizes it... no one feels any shame or has some sense of dignity or self respect. No one gives a damn... and this thread will be appended by dozens of people who will insist that it is perfectly ok and in fact emoticons are NOT sufficiently used.... and television will be filled with more and more reality shows, and Judge Judy, and Dr. Phil, where the masses will seek a moment of relief from their dysfunctional lives by wallowing in the details of OTHER people dysfunctional lives as they fight on stage and claw each other and discuss their incest and addictions and depression.
