The War on Words — part 4

The Death of the Written Language

Can I aks a question?

What do you want for Xmas?

What's become of the written language these days? Am I one of the last to care that if I type like a moron, people will believe I'm a moron? How hard is it to use capitals and punctuation,

And now, people are actually saying 'X-mas'. It's not about efficiency (since the 'X' syllable takes as much time to speak as the 'Christ' syllable), and (for most speakers) it's not about taking the 'Christ' out of Christmas. It is amazing how much effort people will expend in order to be lazy.

I'm seeing more and more sentences written where it seems like the author just didn't care. There is a delete key for a reason. If I continually made a typo on a single word, I would work to mentally insert a filter that checked -- every time I typed that word -- it was spelled correctly. Especially if it was as dirt-common a word as 'the'.

It almost goes without saying, but I need to mention it for completeness: How much time have you saved by typing '2' instead of 'to|too|two'? One or two characters, at most. A whole .5 seconds, or less if you type in bursts (80-100 WPM for short periods) like I do.

Most of the time, I can avoid needing to read these brain-fart abominations. But when I've little choice but to read something filled with '2' and 'u' and 'teh' I end up wanting to tear out my eyeballs and soak them in acid. Or have a root canal: it would cause me less physical pain.

I'm not talking about poor grammar, or awkward mis-phrasings. George W. Bush isn't helping, but public figures of his magnitude -- not that he would care -- score no shortage of criticism.

Writing is an art form. What does it say about someone if they don't take the time to
write clearly and effectively, and use letters-as-words that require more time for the reader to process than they 'save' in typing? I won't answer that: the answer should be obvious.