[Chuckit]

Story Link

People lying about their age and identity apparently really is becoming a dangerous problem on MySpace. A man went to meet what he thought was a twentysomething woman and wound up getting robbed by two thirteen-year-old girls!

[Adam Betts]

Solution: Don't look for a friend through MySpace.

Hell, just don't visit MySpace at all. It reminds me of Geocities back at 1990s. I really don't understand why so many people visit there. It's cancer of the planet.

[greenamp]

lawl

[imitchellg5]

Myspace is dumb I would rather spend time at MacNN.

[micahthompson]

I think the danger of naiveity is far more prevalent than any "danger of myspace".

[besson3c]

I honestly wonder sometimes whether online communities such as MySpace and IM and other modern methods of communication are having a direct affect on the deteriorating quality of people's grammar and sentence structure in general.

I used to point out what I perceived as consistent grammatical flaws here, but this didn't go over very well (I've since given up this losing battle - not that my writing is perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I try my best). I suppose that my mistake was in assuming that people wish to use forums to practice their good writing skills.

However, I've said it then and I'll say it again: it really bothers me that people still mistake they're/their/there, your/you're, etc. and other basic grammar mistakes that should have been corrected in the 3rd grade, and doing so when it actually does matter, and worst of all not even catching and self-correcting their own mistakes. (It also irritates me when people point this out that the reaction is to nit-pick the writing of the person who pointed out the mistake to try to prove that the person is hypocritical - an individual doesn't have to be the epitome of whatever to learn from him/her).

My point is that I sometimes think that MySpace and the like are contributing to this problem based on all of the idiotic (and often unbearable) writing I see there.

[micahthompson]

I completely agree, people seem to think that "it's the internet, so it doesn't matter" but, it should matter. People typing in all caps especially annoys me, is it that hard to press the caps lock and watch the LED turn off? I mean c'mon people.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by micahthompson

I completely agree, people seem to think that "it's the internet, so it doesn't matter" but, it should matter. People typing in all caps especially annoys me, is it that hard to press the caps lock and watch the LED turn off? I mean c'mon people.

Exactly, but like many things in life, using your brain requires practice. You can't just turn your brain off on the internet and justify it to yourself by saying "it's only the internet", and then expect for your brain to work well when you do need it...

[Salty]

Originally Posted by micahthompson

I completely agree, people seem to think that "it's the internet, so it doesn't matter" but, it should matter. People typing in all caps especially annoys me, is it that hard to press the caps lock and watch the LED turn off? I mean c'mon people.

DOOOD LIC WH4T IS YOUR POBLUM MAN!?!?!111 SUROUSLI IT"S THA INTER NET! LIC LIGHTEN UP11!!1

[production_coordinator]

What I don't understand is... why do people trust MySpace any more than anything else? It's just another anonymous website.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by production_coordinator

What I don't understand is... why do people trust MySpace any more than anything else? It's just another anonymous website.

I know exactly what you mean.


Say, would you like to produce something for me? I need your help coordinating this production I'm working on I was issued a big grant for.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by besson3c

However, I've said it then and I'll say it again: it really bothers me that people still mistake they're/their/there, your/you're, etc. and other basic grammar mistakes that should have been corrected in the 3rd grade, and doing so when it actually does matter

I can think of very few occasions on which the difference between "your" and "you're" actually matters — in general, it's impossible to mistake the meaning because of such a mix-up. More likely you mean they do it in cases where it doesn't matter, but somebody cares anyway.

[QuadG5Man]

yer exageration, peeples grammer is gud on the internet, thiers nothin rong wit it. its the evolucion of how poeple tach theise daze.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

I can think of very few occasions on which the difference between "your" and "you're" actually matters — in general, it's impossible to mistake the meaning because of such a mix-up. More likely you mean they do it in cases where it doesn't matter, but somebody cares anyway.

It's impossible to mistake the meaning of "u" instead of "you", or "luv" instead of "love" too, but I still think that people often sound like complete idiots writing like this when it actually does matter. Okay, these two abbreviations are extreme examples, but I've seen some resumés with stupid grammar mistakes, it just doesn't impress me. Like I've said before, it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to take care of business and to write accurately.

Yes, it can be argued that on a forum like this it doesn't really matter. However, I still approach this as practice, and when I have to write something that comes across professional sounding, I can. Many can't.

My central point here is that I often think that it is partially because of places like Myspace that many people cannot, partially because of the "who cares" attitude that everybody takes that perhaps spills over into forums and mediums where it does matter.

[Kenneth]

All my friends use MySpace, but I'm not. My friend can stay there 24/7, which I don't get it. He told me MySpace is a good tool to communicate with other people.

Who care if you have a million friends on your contact list.

[Chuckit]

I'm the lone one out of the people I know who doesn't use MySpace too. I roundly scolded each of my friends as they signed up for it.

[sbender_ceo]

ok it is only the people on it who are stupid enough to do things. If you are cautious it is not a "danger". you just have to know what is going on and who you talk to.

[rickey939]

MySpace is WorthlessSpace.�

[micahthompson]

Originally Posted by Salty

DOOOD LIC WH4T IS YOUR POBLUM MAN!?!?!111 SUROUSLI IT"S THA INTER NET! LIC LIGHTEN UP11!!1

Can I get that a little closer to a langauage that actually exists?? Oh, and you may want to clean your keyboard, looks like the shift keys sticky.

[Salty]

For the record, sadly... I do have a myspace... with like 60 friends or something. Mainly bands I like and friends from school. It's useful to keep in contact and lately I've been checking it more than I'd like to admit. But in general I stick to things like IM, e-mail, forums, that sorta thing.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

I'm the lone one out of the people I know who doesn't use MySpace too. I roundly scolded each of my friends as they signed up for it.

I don't have a MySpace. I don't have a LiveJournal. I don't have a (insert Web 2.0 novelty of the day here).

I don't plan on it, either.

I do have an AIM account, which I use infrequently.

[IFLY2HIGH]

What is My Space? lol...

[Albert Pujols]

Originally Posted by IFLY2HIGH

What is My Space? lol...

if you really don't know, consider yourself fortunate.

[Wiskedjak]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

Story Link

People lying about their age and identity apparently really is becoming a dangerous problem on MySpace. A man went to meet what he thought was a twentysomething woman and wound up getting robbed by two thirteen-year-old girls!

Maybe now all those pedophiles lurking the internet will think twice

[Adam Betts]

A/S/L ??????

[Albert Pujols]

Originally Posted by Wiskedjak

Maybe now all those pedophiles lurking the internet will think twice

Wouldn't that be lucky for a pedophile.. going to meet up with a twenty year old and finding two thirteen year olds instead?

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by Albert Pujols

Wouldn't that be lucky for a pedophile.. going to meet up with a twenty year old and finding two thirteen year olds instead?

Always thinking on the bright side of life, you are. for being so positive.

[dcmacdaddy]

Umm, yeah, so who here takes everything they read/see/hear on the internet as the truth without questioning it?

People who use the Internet and don't know to be careful should lose their internet privileges. Luckily, evolution always
wins out in the end as stupidity usually is fatal. So, I guess this is sort of like bleaching the evolutionary gene pool. Those that don't survive get "cleansed" from the pool to the benefit of all of us.

[JoshuaZ]

People who hook up over myspace get what they deserve. They should learn to hook up randomly at bars after buying too many shots like everyone else has done for the past 3000 years.

[Wiskedjak]

Originally Posted by Albert Pujols

Wouldn't that be lucky for a pedophile.. going to meet up with a twenty year old and finding two thirteen year olds instead?

Or finding two 30yr old men. The point is that maybe pedophiles lurking the 'net will start to realize that they aren't the only ones pretending to be someone else.

[Stratus Fear]

Originally Posted by micahthompson

I completely agree, people seem to think that "it's the internet, so it doesn't matter" but, it should matter. People typing in all caps especially annoys me, is it that hard to press the caps lock and watch the LED turn off? I mean c'mon people.

It Also Annoys Me When People Capitalize The First Letter Of Every Word Like This.

I wish people would just type correctly.

[micahthompson]

You mean capitalizing after puncuation and acronyms? I thought that was normal.

[Stratus Fear]

Originally Posted by micahthompson

You mean capitalizing after puncuation and acronyms? I thought that was normal.

No, the first letter of every word in a sentence. That's not normal.

[Kerrigan]

i tHINK mACNN'S nEW fETISH iS aDOPTING gRAMMAR/pUNCTUATION nAZISM

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

i tHINK mACNN'S nEW fETISH iS aDOPTING gRAMMAR/pUNCTUATION nAZISM

Good. Mac using kiddies already have their own forum - Spymac.

[Kerrigan]

Going around correcting everyone's grammar on the internet is just as immature. Usage, not rules, has always dictated grammar and spelling. Oxford, for instance, finds no fault in online communication:

Originally Posted by askoxford.com

The vocabulary, syntax, and style of electronic text communication is much more fluid than that found in formal writing, and may also be highly personalized. Electronic communication is typically very informal in nature and characterized by many features more often found in conversational speech.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

Going around correcting everyone's grammar on the internet is just as immature. Usage, not rules, has always dictated grammar and spelling. Oxford, for instance, finds no fault in online communication:

Oxford is observing, not providing an editorial.

[Kerrigan]

If you read entries in the OED or other OUP publications like Fowler or Plain English you'll see that the constant theme throughout is that usage is the most important element in language, not some set of static rules (which are often misunderstood anyways).

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

If you read entries in the OED or other OUP publications like Fowler or Plain English you'll see that the constant theme throughout is that usage is the most important element in language, not some set of static rules (which are often misunderstood anyways).

I understand what you are saying. A good writer can break all sorts of rules and come up with some creative use of the language. I understand that, and even dig that. It's sort of analogous to a jazz musician playing outside of the changes.

However, many of these idiots are not attempting to be creative, and do not understand any sort of structure inside or outside of grammatical rules - they are just crappy writers.

Perhaps I'm mistaken to assume that based on the inane substance of some of these posts that they could actually write well if they decided to, but I just get a sense that this is a further manifestation of that "who cares" sort of attitude.

I just wish we would put more value in sounding smart.

[Dork.]

Here's a good thought experiment for you all: Should it be a crime for someone to create an "alternative lifestyle" online, and lie about their age and other vital statistics to create this alternate persona? If the person has criminal intentions, of course, they should be stopped, but that has nothing to do really with misrepresenting themselves online. Is the simple misrepresentation of your identity online enough to warrant being punished?

A side question: is there any legitimate reason for an older person to pass themselves off as a teenager on MySpace? And even if there isn't, is that grounds to conclude that there' no possible legitimate reason for that?

[Kerrigan]

The tone of myspace, AIM, txt messages, etc, is very casual. It would be inappropriate to txt someone using a formal tone, and it would probably alienate the person on the other end.

I agree that in other places, for instance, academic settings or maybe even MacNN, the audience expects well written, grammatically correct posts. But saying that every other form of writing must adhere to strict rules of language is incorrect. For instance, we wouldn't go nitpicking all of the cryptic, barely legible notes that Shakespeare wrote to himself and others.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

The tone of myspace, AIM, txt messages, etc, is very casual. It would be inappropriate to txt someone using a formal tone, and it would probably alienate the person on the other end.

I agree that in other places, for instance, academic settings or maybe even MacNN, the audience expects well written, grammatically correct posts. But saying that every other form of writing must adhere to strict rules of language is incorrect. For instance, we wouldn't go nitpicking all of the cryptic, barely legible notes that Shakespeare wrote to himself and others.

I agree, MySpace doesn't *have* to have excellent writing, I'm just personally not impressed by the combination of the poor writing and inanity there (maybe the latter bugs me more than the former).

It also seems to be fashionable to write "creatively" like that. It would be a pretty cool trend if people didn't simply attempt to mimic each other ala wearing beltless pants that hang down around the knees.

Maybe I'm just old.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

If you read entries in the OED or other OUP publications like Fowler or Plain English you'll see that the constant theme throughout is that usage is the most important element in language, not some set of static rules (which are often misunderstood anyways).

That's because Oxford is providing a scientific, descriptive analysis of English usage. The "rules" are important because people think they are, not because Oxford weighs in one way or the other.

[Kerrigan]

If the rules are so important to people then why do they break down so often and give way to new linguistic conventions, as in electronic communication?

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

If the rules are so important to people then why do they break down so often and give way to new linguistic conventions, as in electronic communication?

The rules themselves aren't important, but the convention on how to sound intelligent is. Like I said, I just wish more people were interested in sounding smart.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

If the rules are so important to people then why do they break down so often and give way to new linguistic conventions, as in electronic communication?

What a strange question. It seems to answer itself.

[Kerrigan]

Good, guess we can agree then that usage, and not rules, are more important to a language and its speakers.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

Good, guess we can agree then that usage, and not rules, are more important to a language and its speakers.

Sure, I agree with that. I just thought you were defending the usage of language on MySpace.

[Chuckit]

We can agree that usage is more important to some speakers. Very few rules in life are important in and of themselves — they matter because of what the people who care about the rules can do to you. In the case of language, rules also matter because deviation can make it hard to read — but the rules for readability are somewhat different from the prescriptive rules a lot of people care about. (In fact, a lot of the people who are very careful about prescriptive rules go so far in that direction that it also makes their writing difficult.)

[Stratus Fear]

I suppose rules of a language don't need to be followed to a T (I usually just ignore the they're/their/there stuff and similar when I see it even if it pisses me off), but this kind of crap (below) is just ridiculous and inexcusable. I shouldn't be expected to decipher this:

yea theyv released the pebl 4 t-mobile i thnk the pebl suks horrible no expandable memory....ill admit the v3i is sexii but idk the v3x has somethng about it tat idk its my perfect match lol mayb its bcuz the stereo speakers and the qvga screen tats y i dont lyk the v3i same screen as v3 except they improved it a litl so u dont c them lines on the menu stuff....and the v3x has a new os basic things but battery bar and stuff is diff v3i is exactly lyk every othr moto the only reason id get it is bcuz the way it looks i luv the big black glass on the front and the blue M.....motos rnt my first choice Nokia's r but there screens rnt tat good 178x208 but they hav one tats clearer than a qvga but its not on the n91 the 4 gig music phone but bak 2 moto's.....id b impressed if they added stereo speakers to the v3i w/o sacrificing the slimnest

I understand some normal grammatical mistakes and spelling errors (even if they annoy me) but the MySpace/AOL usage butchering of the English language needs to be thrown out in the back yard and buried where it belongs.