Motion: The web is destroying 21st Century culture and the way we understand the worl

Rune said:
My son is 18. He was born in '93. I came to computers late in life. I studied "Basic" and some other dull computer language for one semester than banned myself for life from computers.
I came back to computers after the advent of windows. I was sold on this by a good friend and glad he took the time to sell me. It is not like I didn't have other interests,
but had I stayed that course, I would have missed an abundance of good.

My son has had a computer in his home (and internet) as long as he can remember.

The internet (and all that goes with it; the good and bad) is a comprehensive part of 21st century culture, has been from the begining of it.

However, we still buy books (even my children with their own computers, TVs, PS-3s, DS, I-pods and every other creepy mind-numbing screen-centric device available these days.

I still like the feel of a newspaper in my hand, a good conversation about a good book, a great new movie, or a favorite old movie, an ocasional TV show, National Geograhic and especialy Smithsonian (magazines).

We have bookshelves in every room in our home, save the bathrooms and kitchen, yet there are books STACKED in each of those rooms.

The internet is a powerful tool, like any tool it can be misused, but clearly, beyond the shadow of a doubt, it's good benefit outweighs it's bad.

One thing I heartily agree with though; The habit of "internet shorthand" is BULLSHIT.

Keep the language and the tools which make it work well alive!

Puntuate and capitalize to the best of your ability.

Nothing about the internet itself should have wrought this change, save laziness itself.

Fight the slackers.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with you as far as language and slackers is concerned.
In English and, I guess, in other languages, the history and formation of the words we use is our history and culture. What is the place of Latin for example? From whence come words containg the letter 'K'? Why is 'A' so shaped? What is the history of 'ketchup' or 'bungalow'? Where do our names come from?
The use of text language, for example, is not of itself bad. What is bad is that a lot of youngsters do not know when to use it and when not to. If they do not understand that then why try to teach them about 'register'? CUL8r
 
Whereas people generally strive to expand their lexicon, the government in Nineteen Eighty-Four actually aims to cut back the Newspeak vocabulary. One of the Newspeak engineers says, “[we’re] cutting the language down to the bone . . . Newspeak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year” (55). By manipulating the language, the government wishes to alter the public’s way of thinking. This can be done, psychologists theorise, because the words that are available for the purpose of communicating thought tend to influence the way people think. The linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf was a firm believer in this link between thought and language, and he theorised that “different languages impose different conceptions of reality” (Myers 352). So when words that describe a particular thought are completely absent from a language, that thought becomes more difficult to think of and communicate. For the Inner Party, the goal is to impose an orthodox reality and make heretical thought (‘thoughtcrime’) impossible. “In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible,” explains the Newspeak engineer, “because there will be no words in which to express it” (55)...

Orwell’s novel carries a well-founded warning about the powers of language. It shows how language can shape people’s sense of reality, how it can be used to conceal truths, and even how it can be used to manipulate history. “Language is one of the key instruments of political dominations, the necessary and insidious means of the ‘totalitarian’ control of reality” (Rai, 122). While language in the traditional sense can expand horizons and improve our understanding of the world, Orwell’s novel demonstrates that language, when used in a maliciously political way, can just as easily become “a plot against human consciousness”

http://www.sysdesign.ca/archive/berkes_1984_language.html

By dumbing down whole generations and replacing critical thinking with emotionally charged phrases, like, “Take Our Country Back”, “Don’t Retreat, Reload”, "They hate us for our freedoms" people will be easily manipulated to act against their own best interests and will be completely unable to understand why they are being used as pawns.
 
Obama allowed ten states out of the "No Child Left Behind" law today.
This extremely destructive blow against an educated populace, one of the very worst legacies of the Bush II administration Neocons, is crumbling.
Right now this is our greatest hope.
 
I keep seeing this line persued by the likes of Midcan and LowIQ. They overlook the fact that the general populace has been ignorant of political facts for generations, and that people as a group tend to be pretty stupid, and try to claim that the technology of the information age is the root cause for all our mental lapses. Midcan even tries to claim that the Millenial Generation is uniquely ignorant, while himself being a Kaboomer...

This is like the line about how we are uniquely polarized, and in the past politics were civil and gentlemanly, and politicians were honest and hard-working.
 
Asuming that we are in the midst of a Gilded Age, with robber barons and all, regardless of previous generation's abilities or malcontent's versions of present ones,
the only possible solution IMHO is a better educated populace.
 
General Chamberlain said:
I keep seeing this line persued by the likes of Midcan and LowIQ. They overlook the fact that the general populace has been ignorant of political facts for generations, and that people as a group tend to be pretty stupid, and try to claim that the technology of the information age is the root cause for all our mental lapses. Midcan even tries to claim that the Millenial Generation is uniquely ignorant, while himself being a Kaboomer...

This is like the line about how we are uniquely polarized, and in the past politics were civil and gentlemanly, and politicians were honest and hard-working.
Click to expand...

The Internet can be a force for good or for evil, it is early days yet as to what happens in the future. Suffice to say, it certainly keeps totalitarian governments on their toes.
 
General Chamberlain said:
I keep seeing this line persued by the likes of Midcan and LowIQ. They overlook the fact that the general populace has been ignorant of political facts for generations, and that people as a group tend to be pretty stupid, and try to claim that the technology of the information age is the root cause for all our mental lapses. Midcan even tries to claim that the Millenial Generation is uniquely ignorant, while himself being a Kaboomer...

This is like the line about how we are uniquely polarized, and in the past politics were civil and gentlemanly, and politicians were honest and hard-working.
Click to expand...

Will you ban science because many people do not understand it? Will you destroy history because it bores young people? Of course not.
The dumbing down of language is the new shackle that binds the masses to the powerful. Learn to use it well and be free to use words to fight injustice.
A punch in the face is an extremely temporary solution to a problem.
 
I'm usually one of the first people to get pissed-off whenever a new "word" is added to the dictionary. There used to be a joke about how the word "ain't" is not a word because no one was silly enough to add it to an official dictionary. Now, that word is the least of our problems, and words better left on Urban Dictionary are being discovered by Merriam and Webster. There's really no way to stop people from running with these words and phrases in the first place, even if we did choose not to officially recognize them.
 
General Chamberlain said:
I'm usually one of the first people to get pissed-off whenever a new "word" is added to the dictionary. There used to be a joke about how the word "ain't" is not a word because no one was silly enough to add it to an official dictionary. Now, that word is the least of our problems, and words better left on Urban Dictionary are being discovered by Merriam and Webster. There's really no way to stop people from running with these words and phrases in the first place, even if we did choose not to officially recognize them.
Click to expand...

Traditionally a word had to work hard to enter the OED (clearly anything goes in the charlatan Noah's book). Now it only has to be written in a blog and 'Shazoom!' there it is nestling twixt the pages of decency ... like a cuckoo ready to pitch its synonymous adopted family fluttering to oblivion.
 
Lowaicue said:
Traditionally a word had to work hard to enter the OED (clearly anything goes in the charlatan Noah's book). Now it only has to be written in a blog and 'Shazoom!' there it is nestling twixt the pages of decency ... like a cuckoo ready to pitch its synonymous adopted family fluttering to oblivion.
Click to expand...

I take umbrage at your disparaging Noah. You should be satisfied that we still call it english.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top