Younger generation's intelligence scares me...

[Shadowferal]

No. Google is apparently dumbing people down. Computer use and texting is evolving our language.

You mean devolving.

Why do Americans have different spelling to the English? It's the same language basically. I heard it was because of the cost of printing words in the past. Just an example of how technology evolves language.

Not all of America's fault. (yeah, Webster)
But we were British citizen's before after all. How Americans preserved British English

[Crissi]

You mean devolving. Not all of America's fault. (yeah, Webster)
But we were British citizen's before after all. How Americans preserved British English

Language is always changing, its not necessarily devolving.

You go back to England and look how English has changed over the centuries, and what we're going through isn't that different.

[Shadowferal]

As actual history answers, they don't exactly pass muster. The prompt was specifically about the 19th century but you get answers about the 20th century. That doesnt speak to intelligence, only spitting out what you read or completely not knowing what the 19th century is.

Kind of like teaching to take a test. A student doesn't learn much other than answering correctly, as opposed to knowing why the answer is correct to begin with.

[Masark]

I mean, I also developed my own writing style kinda over the years, but the thought of people not learning how to properly write beyond print just feels... odd to me. I'm kinda imagining a generation of people writing with scrawly elementary school letters. ^^"

As opposed to scrawly elementary school cursive.

Cursive writing has been obsolete since we stated using ballpoint and rollerball pens. All different styles of cursive only existed to work around the limitations of quill, reed, dip, and fountain pens.

[Shadowferal]

[Crissi]

funny, i havent had to write cursive since elementary and I can read that. Me thinks the 'but not teaching them cursive means they cant read it" is just the excuse of lazy writers who cant be arsed to write letters clearly.

Also, all those loops are unnecessary and are just being fancy to be fancy. Fanciness is not necessarily a component of intelligence.

[Shadowferal]

hmm..



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You're supposed to like reading this sort of thing...as well as write it.

[Crissi]

I can read that one too!

The cool thing about the brain is, as long as you understand what most letters are, your brain will fill in the rest based on context.

[Shadowferal]

I can read that one too!
The cool thing about the brain is, as long as you understand what most letters are, your brain will fill in the rest based on context.

My doctor said the same thing when I had a problem with astigmatism long ago.

[draynay]

Apparently "19th century" is still fucking confusing to people.

[Mistame]

Being woke is some right wing bullshit buzzword.

No, it's not. It's an African-American colloquialism that was brought back into mainstream by BLM, to raise awareness to racial issues. It's primary use now is slang to imply that one is aware/up to date with current social issues. It helps to know what you're talking about before, you know, you talk about it.

Why do Americans have different spelling to the English? It's the same language basically. I heard it was because of the cost of printing words in the past.

Not sure about that, but part of it is about simplicity. As an example, we don't use a "u" in word words like color, armor, etc, because those words are pronounced "cuh-ler" and "ar-mer" respectively. "Our" is pronounced either "ow-er" or "or" and not "er". That's not to say that there aren't spellings that are just absurd.

[breadisfunny]

Wait, they stopped teaching cursive? Do students nowadays dont taken written notes anymore? I don't even... *confused*

my cursive is barely legible.

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Apparently "19th century" is still fucking confusing to people.

i personally find it to be a stupid term and i refuse to use it to this day.

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Apparently "19th century" is still fucking confusing to people.

i personally find it to be a stupid term and i refuse to use it to this day.

[Calfredd]

You're supposed to like reading this sort of thing...as well as write it.

Why?

/tenchars

[Wyrt]

Seems she was simply confused by 19th century. Shit like that happens, just explain it to her.

[Spectral]

No. Google is apparently dumbing people down. Computer use and texting is evolving our language. Why do Americans have different spelling to the English? It's the same language basically. I heard it was because of the cost of printing words in the past. Just an example of how technology evolves language.

I'm not convinced this is a dumbing down - language exists to serve man, not man to serve language. If syntax and usage shift as a result of new tools like Google and frequent use of portable personal electronics, it's not obvious to me why that's any worse of a thing than the shifts from oral language to written, then written to printed, then printed to electronically typed. I'd be interested in hearing what linguists have to say on the matter, but a shift towards different rules of grammar isn't a clearly bad thing.

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As actual history answers, they don't exactly pass muster. The prompt was specifically about the 19th century but you get answers about the 20th century. That doesnt speak to intelligence, only spitting out what you read or completely not knowing what the 19th century is.

The writer's poor use of the medium and lack of understanding of what "19th century" means doesn't make me real optimistic about what they've learned so far, but I have to agree with @munkeyinorbit that the writer gave answers that are clearly connected to the pursuit of freedom in the United States, they clearly thought about the question as deeply as they reasonably could, and they put forth some level of effort. Obviously you can't give them full credit for that answer, but I've seen a lot worse; frankly, OP comes off a lot worse for smugly indicting a generation on the basis of a C-quality answer.

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I mean, I also developed my own writing style kinda over the years, but the thought of people not learning how to properly write beyond print just feels... odd to me. I'm kinda imagining a generation of people writing with scrawly elementary school letters. ^^"

I'm in my mid-30s, so I learned a lot of the same technique, but they're mostly just gone at this point. When I have to take any handwritten notes, they tend to be barely legible. Since most of my notes are going to need to be in electronic form for sharing with colleagues, I vastly prefer to just type them in the first place, so the skill of decent handwriting (which was never a strong suit for me anyway) has basically just gone away. I won't be surprised if the next generation is much worse than me at handwriting on average, but I will be surprised if they haven't replaced it with a casual ease in some form of electronic media that feels clumsy for me. We're just in one of those weird estuary periods - once upon a time, people worried that the written language would ruin people's memories since they could simply write things down.

[callipygoustp]

Is this a boomer vs zoomer thread?

[Dadwen]

My guess is they intelligence is about the same, one generation that more of them can write in cursive as the example above and one that can connect 10 different wireless devices to a home wireless network without batting an eye. the priorities on what knowledge is important to them changes, used to be knowing certain information off the top of your head was useful, now it can be more useful to know where and how to look up that information *everyone's becoming their own librarian for instance access to information (you may know less information off the top of your head in the 2nd example, but you have access to almost unlimited amounts that would be almost impossible to memorize for the average person.)

Maybe worded a bit off, but just my opinion

[Aurgjelme]

In my history class there are a few students who's English skills and basic intelligence scares me.

So you are an old dude in class with kids, shaking your cane furiously at said kids?

[Belize]

[img]https://i.pinimg.com/564x/5c/a9/2e/5ca92ede514b611f6040035f0b3413f7.jpg[mg]

Cursive is no better or worse than "regular" handwriting.

The only reason cursive/calligraphy exists, is because of the limitation of fountain pens back in the day. Now, people are attached to it for sentimental/cultural reasons. It doesn't need to exist anymore, thanks to modern pens not (usually) blotting ink everywhere.

[Katchii]

No. Google is apparently dumbing people down. Computer use and texting is evolving our language. Why do Americans have different spelling to the English? It's the same language basically. I heard it was because of the cost of printing words in the past. Just an example of how technology evolves language.

The two aren't mutually exclusive. It's possible that because of the "dumbing down" the language is naturally evolving to actually show that.

Language evolving just means it's changing in way that hasn't been seen before, doesn't mean it's for the better or a result of a rise in intelligence in the population using it.

Natural does not always mean good.