Not a Rant[tm}

[lagilman]

In kradical's journal, he went on a semi-rant about the (ab)use of "i" and "e" in front of everything.

Me, I'm still stuck on the fact that it's now considered acceptable usage to say email instead of e-mail. Not by me, it isn't, she said, brandishing her (wooden) cane and chomping her (ivory) fake teeth....


I blame text messaging. Lord knows I abuse texting as much as the next non-teenaged non-geek (my cell phone bill proves that) but it takes me the same amount of time to type the full word in as it does to enter some stupid semi-abbreviated code. Using "U" instead of "you" or similar silliness while corresponding with me? Some folk have already learned that this is...dangerous. To say the least.

If I'm worth the time to talk to, I'm worth the effort of a complete word. Except 'k. At this point, I've caved on the use of 'k. But I feel slightly dirty for it.

On that topic, I have come up with a new technological breakthrough that will make me famous, if not rich. It's an attachment to your iPod that allows you to interact with other people, exchange ideas, and put forward propositions into a group.


It's called an iThink.


In stores by next December. Start saving your pennies now.

Comments

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Love, love, love your icon!

[ex-fashioni.livejournal.com]

*applause*

Make room on the curmudgeon bench. I even capitalize and punctuate properly when I IM, too. I don't hold it against people who don't, (I know some of my friends try to (I know for some friends it's a matter of minimizing typing time for hand issues) although I do twitch, just a bit.

But all in all, it makes me crazy, crazy, crazy.

[deannahoak.livejournal.com]

This is interesting. It plays in with my post on compounding from the other day.

One would ordinarily expect "e-mail" to complete the compounding process and become a single word, but I suspect it will remain hyphenated because the "em" is so likely to be mispronounced. Still, it could happen. We certainly don't spell "to-day" with a hyphen anymore, despite the "tod" leading one to suspect a short "o" sound. :-)

[barbara-ferrenz.livejournal.com]

I don't begrudge the kids abbreviating and making their own language when they're talking to each other but one has to gauge the appropriateness. One of my college students sent me an email (I don't hyphenate) filled with "u" for "you" and "r" for "are." She also called me "Barbara." {twitch} The response had full sentences and was signed "Mrs. Ferrenz."

I won't go into full rant mode but I used to teach a social skills class for kids with behavior disorders. They often got into trouble because they didn't know how to switch their speech for peers and for authority figures. You talk to your buds one way and your teacher another. I'm noticing that talking to adults as if they were another kid is becoming the norm. It's a subtle difference but one, up until recently, young people without a disability use to pick up on without direct instruction. Okay, I'm ranting and will stop.

[janni.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, I find being called "Ms. Simner" by kid really, really weird, and would much rather be "Janni." I figure I can be an authority figure and still use my first name.

Admittedly, I'm not a teacher (though I am a Scout leader), which may make a difference. It would be a little odd to call a teacher by first name right off the bat.

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

I hope that iThink will come bundled with an iAm.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I, too, am still hanging on to the hyphen in e-mail.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

My huge peeve is "couldof" and "shouldof" instead of "could've" and "should've." They're contractions. They actually mean something. Sticking "of" at the end of a word (with the possible exception of "kind of") means absolutely nothing.

The other pet peeve is "utilize" instead of use, although that battle is a rearguard action at this point.

[rosefox]

Incentivize! *stab stab stab*

iAgree

[(Anonymous)]

This is one of the (several) reasons we won't let Christina (just turned 9) use IM with her friends from school. She already has difficulties with spelling and phonics, and I don't want her spending time in an environment where such casual misuse of language is the norm. I do let her e-mail (hyphen more out of courtesy to LAG than out of habit), but she is not allowed to use her e-mail without Amy or I present (She only knows how to access it through Thunderbird under my user id on our home computer. She has no idea that she can access it from any other computer.) We do copyedit for her as we emphasize how important it is to communicate clearly.

Austin (about to be 8) does not have an e-mail account, and will not get one until next school year at the earliest.

Sean

[janni.livejournal.com]

I figure the email/e-mail thing is just the natural tendency toward compressing language. It seems to some extent both have been in use as long as I can remember electronic mail existing at all--I remember debating this for copy a decade ago.

email looks better/less awkward to my eye than e-mail, so I don't much mind the change as the latter becomes standard.

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

I used to hyphenate e-mail, but a few years ago, a tech writer friend pointed out that email is now acceptable usage.

[kalligraphy.livejournal.com]

When I first got involved in online communication, while playing the game Dragon's Gate back in the early 90's, I was a guilty as everyone else when it came to proper punctuation and capitalization.

typical sentance structure was to ignore capitals
we also tended to ignore punctuation
but damn it! we at least used real words!

In the mid 90's I became part of the game staff, and in order to maintain the illusion that many of the things we did came from the game, I got into the habit of complete sentance structure. (Even if the spelling wasn't always perfect)

In the late 90's I started playing a new game and suddenly got hit with all these younger players using shorthand. Using c for see, 4 for for, u for you. I hated it. Annoyed the crap out of me. Look I can read typo, but plez dont make me try to figer out wat ur tryn to say. (twitch) I developed this stuck up reputation because I was the only one running around typing in complete sentences. I still do it when online. The only thing I find worse is the guy who can't write complete thoughts in a coherent pattern.

There was this guy on a distro list I was on for awhile that would use poor grammer, bad spelling, incomplete sentences and no logical thought progression in his messages. Everything had to be decyphered, and he wondered why no one paid attention to him. I tried to tell him that he needed to put more thought into his messages, that people found reading his posts to be a tiresome choir so we all just ignored him. He never did seem to figure out that reading is supposed to be a joy, not a job. *shrug*