I have become.. an ornery old coot

MightyChad

New member
I am 28. I hate teenagers, I hate kids. I hate their music, and their...groan... idols, like Justin Beiber. I hate American Idol. But what I hate most is leetspeak, or whatever you call it. I have used the IMO abbreviation, but I don't use lol, rofl, or any of the others. I can't even translate them I had to look up OTT and WAAC on a Warhammer Forum. The sad thing is the lose of grammar and spelling, by the youth in the world. And one day leetspeak will be an accepted part of the language, and even will be popping up more in verbal conversation. I even hear people my age using lol when talking face to face. How pathetic...
 

MightyChad

New member
I was wondering if anyone would notice it. I started to go back and fix it, but then decided to see if I would get called out. But a lot of the young 'uns would have missed that. It is hard to type quickly and avoid the occasional mistake. But try finding a 15 year old that knows which version of there, they're, and their is to be used and in what instance. Or to, too, and two.
 

spazomatic

New member
I am 28. I hate teenagers, I hate kids. I hate their music, and their...groan... idols, like Justin Beiber. I hate American Idol. But what I hate most is leetspeak, or whatever you call it. I have used the IMO abbreviation, but I don't use lol, rofl, or any of the others. I can't even translate them I had to look up OTT and WAAC on a Warhammer Forum. The sad thing is the lose of grammar and spelling, by the youth in the world. And one day leetspeak will be an accepted part of the language, and even will be popping up more in verbal conversation. I even hear people my age using lol when talking face to face. How pathetic...


Man after my own heart.
I'm 39 and it's even sadder when people my age use leetspeak. I admire people who use good grammar and spelling, lost arts nowadays. Like B&W photography.
 

Chrome

New member
I was wondering if anyone would notice it. I started to go back and fix it, but then decided to see if I would get called out. But a lot of the young 'uns would have missed that. It is hard to type quickly and avoid the occasional mistake. But try finding a 15 year old that knows which version of there, they're, and their is to be used and in what instance. Or to, too, and two.

And to be somewhat fair, I've met far more teens that use proper grammar than adults. Something I've noticed is that it is quite common to find a teen that know how to use proper grammar but choose to use the more common style of communicating out of habit or when on social media such as forums and communities, or texting(which I know isn't a proper word but everyone's using it) for that matter, and when they are to type official documents they use proper grammar and punctuation.
Another common thing I've noticed is that adults at 25-30+ have a much, much worse grip on their own language, I've seen way too many official documents full of -to use a modern term, Newb mistakes- that just shouldn't be there if you knew how to properly write an official text.

One of my theories about this is that when finishing school you just don't care any longer and let the occasional slip up become the norm instead of nursing your linguistics skills but when you're in school you know how to use proper grammar but you are so fed up with rehearsing the same crap you've already done over and over to a point where it feels like a kind of vacation to use a more relaxed language among friends.

Oh, and sure, I'm a foreigner so I can't see country-specific issues in this matter but it seems like this is the case with at least most English speaking nations where there is an emphasis on language in school and that is certainly the case here in Sweden.
 

MightyChad

New member
And to be somewhat fair, I've met far more teens that use proper grammar than adults....

Oh, I wish that was the case here. I suppose it could be the teenagers I am around. In response to your point, I don't know many people my age that stick to the rules, either. I have no doubt that it may have a lot to do with my location, but those are the limitations I am forced to use when I make broad assumptions about the general population.
 

Jericho

Consummate Brushlicker
As my current job title is Writer/Editor, I often just shake my head. Reading the comments sections of news websites is a sick obsession of mine while I'm at work. On the bright side, when I see some horrible English composed by a coworker, I can say: "At least it's better than those idiots on CNN.com..."

Some of the ones that baffle me are loss/lose/loose, breathe/breath, you're/your, etc. Native English speakers shouldn't be able to mess this shit up. These are 4-6 letter words, people! :p
 

Chrome

New member
As my current job title is Writer/Editor, I often just shake my head. Reading the comments sections of news websites is a sick obsession of mine while I'm at work. On the bright side, when I see some horrible English composed by a coworker, I can say: "At least it's better than those idiots on CNN.com..."

Some of the ones that baffle me are loss/lose/loose, breathe/breath, you're/your, etc. Native English speakers shouldn't be able to mess this shit up. These are 4-6 letter words, people! :p

And sadly it seems that it's mostly natives that do mix them up... I did have trouble remembering if I should use lose or loose, but only until I found out what Loose translated to.
 

waghorn41

Member
Oh I'm definitely in the old coot club. I don't play all these online games, have no idea what most text speak means and to be honest I couldn't give a damn. I don't however sit on a park bench and talk to pigeons, well maybe one or two I recognise....
 
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