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Joined:
January 2009
Posts: 1249
Location: Texas | Dark was probably NIFOC when he typed that. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7225
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Originally posted by Waskel:
The way I see it, the younger generation is the one losing it's communication skills... I actually do not agree. Their actual communication potential as well as skills has far exceeded what we ever had when we were younger than 25 years old. The problem with folks older than 25 years old is we need to learn a new language to participate in the same things we used to do in other ways.
When I was working at the Restaurant this summer, I was constantly reminded of how inefficient our communication used to be in the same scenario when I was younger. Something as simple as letting the boss know you're gonna be late, letting the person you are relieving know and being asked to pick up something at the sister restaurant on the way happens in seconds without the sound of a phone ringing.. As another, I would walk around with my phone and go my liqueur inventory in an email, press send and my boss would get it, and at the same time the store got it and prepared it for him to pick up. In one swipe and five presses I can tell Lisa I'm on my home, and she doesn't even have to touch anything (text to speech vLingo).
Now I will say that other antiquated forms of communication like letter writing and presentation have deteriorated.. but then again.. they are antiquated forms of communication. Person-to-person conversation I do not think has been affected, with the exception of that now when you see something cool and want to share, you can instantly share it with EVERYONE you know, not just the person standing next to you.
While I am an old fart, I feel lucky that I have been able to embrace newer forms of communication and take some of my old fart brothers and sisters with me for the ride. |
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Joined:
February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | I'm not talking about efficiency or potential.
I'm talking about the ability to communicate clearly and succinctly via the English language using proper grammar and words of more than 2 syllables.
r lingo wl suffA. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7225
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Originally posted by Waskel:
I'm talking about the ability to communicate clearly and succinctly via the English language using proper grammar and words of more than 2 syllables. Talk about irony. Here we are two reasonably educated persons and I do not understand the point you are making, and I think you misunderstood my point completely.
Could you give me an example of where there is a need to "communicate clearly and succinctly via the English language using proper grammar and words of more than 2 syllables" in everyday life?
I would offer up online forums like this one, and blogging as examples, and frankly I see more "younger generation" bloggers now than I ever saw writing articles for the equivalent school newspaper back in the day. As far as tweeting and status updates and general texting, I see more of that today than people who kept diaries 30 years ago. But even then, most who did keep a diary wrote it in some encrypted language or shorthand. Today there is not only more widespread use of the modern diary, but the authors can choose to allow others to read their diaries as well.
So while I think there are less occasions to use proper English, those that do use it, make better use of it. General communication no longer requires it under most circumstances.
Writing lyrics certainly doesn't come into play as I don't think grammar was ever a priority over a good rhyme. |
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Joined:
January 2009
Posts: 1249
Location: Texas | In my line of work, we find that todays youth have less than desirable writing skills, as well as face to face communication skills. Sure they can text. Not many employers care, professionally speaking.
Texting is convenient. So is 7-11. Thats what we strive for...convenience. But it has also allowed our kids to get a little rusty on their verbal skills with other human beings. Instead of talking to each other on the phone and attempting to build a conversation, they bang off some short phrases of half baked words w/o any sentence structure.
Just my .02... |
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Joined:
November 2005
Posts: 4832
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
Like, I know what you mean man, but it's not such a heavy trip...really. Y'know what I mean?
There have always been those who do not communicate effectively, the language they use is not so important as their facility with whichever subcultural lingo they are familiar with.
While I have a personal bias that someone can't have the idea without having the words first, I've seen people make some pretty complex ideas out of a fairly limited vocabulary too. Some songwriters do it regularly. At the same time, some 'old proper' language is pretty dense and unintelligible to a modern reader; George Santayanas Life of Reason comes to mind. |
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