With all the potential, the incredible promise, offered by the new Information Age, it blows my mind that the only thing coming from the Internet is a major increase in national stupidity.
We can now exchange volumes of written information in seconds. Sentences, paragraphs, pages in mere micro-seconds. We could theoretically share our life stories with the world in moments.
Yet we have such things as "LOL". "BRB" We're in possession of the fastest communication devices in Human History, and we want to make it faster. We equate "incorrect" with "fast" so we get such moronic blurbs as "Your my hero".
Some moron was explaining the other day how we shouldn't be teaching our kids how to write (with a pen or pencil, numbskulls)anymore. This Genuis decided we won't have to write manually anymore, we can just type it up on a computer. Personal touch. Class. Integrity. Manners. None of that matters anymore, so yeah, maybe he's right.
We've just about destroyed the English Language because the so-called "Educators" in this country think it's more important for our students to learn other languages, or design curricula that don't require the lazy to bother learning English.
I think my own problem here is that we have been given access to something that could have raised the learning curve in this country immensely by giving equal access to incredible amounts of information that could have leveled the playing field.
Instead we spend hours watching Morons On Video taking stupidity to new heights. We encourage idiots to become stars, we applaud morons who break the law by calling it entertainment. We condone the most ridiculous behavior as long as we can watch. That's partly why we have Reality TV. This crap wouldn't have sold 20 years ago because people were to smart to waste time on stuff like this.
We have one of the most powerful learning tools ever, right here at our disposal, at what do we get? YouTube, PerezHilton and MySpace.
Do you think the guys who invented computers ever envisioned that?
It is amazing that my cell phone has more computing power than the first computer, the Eniac?? at UofI [Champaign-Urbana]. While it does destroy some forms of communication, some applications like Mapquest, On-Line banking, etc., sure are handy :o)
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I use LOL sometimes, but I don't think I've ever used it when I was writing an actual blog entry...only on Facebook, comments, etc. I'm still a stickler when it comes to writing letters and emails. I mourn the loss of proper grammar. One of the things I like the least about Twitter is that I sometimes have to use an abbreviation in order to make my tweet fit!
ReplyDeleteYou make some good points, while stepping on my toes.
ReplyDeleteI'm in amazement every day over what we can now do between the computers and our phones.
ReplyDeleteToo much technology can be harmful however. I do think it makes us lazy.
Have a good night!
Okay, I confess. I use the abbreviations. I have myspace and facebook. I even recently set up a youtube account to store video of the kids.
ReplyDeleteBut I completely get what you're saying and totally agree with you.
Now BACK OFF! LMAO
Teasing, teasing. :)
XOXO
Jimmy I totally agree with you ~ and I too am amazed that they don't think we need to write with pen/pencil anymore ~ what crazy times we live in ~ Ally x
ReplyDelete