From my understanding of the situation, a lot of it comes down to issues with reading stamina. Specifically, shorter form text is little to no issue but for something longer like a book - or even a longer article - is difficult to read. A lot of this basically comes down to how a lot of school districts teach reading as a "search for key points" to pass testing, instead of actual comprehension. I was still in school when they made this change and it put me off reading for some time, and it wasn't until later on when I finally had the time to sit down and read books properly again that I got back into it. I now write science fiction, but it's in spite of the school which destroyed my love of reading at the time.
I have noticed this as well. I thought it was just the way I was writing things, but I've noticed people just don't have reading comprehension abilities anymore. It's scary.
“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” ― George Carlin I don't think social media is "making people stupid," rather it gives everyone, including stupid people, the ability to broadcast their stupidity to the world. As for trolls, the best trolls can make people believe that they are just making a stupid post while others reading their posts are left wondering if their post is just trolling or they're just another stupid person making a stupid post.
There was a gautemalan who set a woman on fire recently on the nyc subway and i wondered what it was with that person like if they were possessed or whatever. No the issue is guatemala has an average iq less than 50.
Are you familiar with the movie "Idiocracy"? Many people seem to have taken it as an instructional one instead of satire it was intended to be. Years ago someone on some forum asked "what is the most important modern invention for you?" The very first answer was along the lines "Internet because I don't have to waste time on thinking, I just ask a question and someone will give me the solution". Many, if not most, people don't want to use their brain. It requires energy and any biologist will tell you that every living creature tries to conserve as much energy as possible.
The Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco (1932-2016) once said to the newspaper La Stampa: “Social networks give the right to speak to a legion of idiots who used to only talk in a bar after a glass of wine, without harming humanity. Back then, they were quickly silenced, but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It’s the invasion of the idiots.”
I totally agree with your observation. I would include that I think our attention span is so short because it's divided by so many things that we don't really take time to think about what's being said, we just provide a knee jerk reaction. I have caught myself doing that sometimes and now I mostly force myself to take some time before replying, to make sure I understood it the way I thought.
The most surprising part of this video is that you have only just realised we live in a world full of idiots, the funniest part is the below comments are now using full sentences
Some "idiots" sometimes forget to place full-stop at the end of the sentences. Oh my what a disaster, its almost as people on the internet are trying to live up to high literacy standards.
...including those that need to paint little pictures around the words that they write because they lack the confidence in written language to choose the correct words in the first place, rather than requiring emojis to encourage the reader to select a particular nuance or interpretation of their words.
I'd like to agree with you, but having talked to countless idiots in real life. I'm on the side of, their more than likely real and more than likely that genuinely stupid..
So many ppl seem to try their hardest to not reason so they can understand things the way it's convenient for them, don't know if it's sa form of cowardice, apathy or just laziness..
Not only English people. I'm Taiwanese, kids these days, even adult do have same problem. They will get mad if you argue with them. They can't focus on one thing for a period of time, can't get the important part of conversation or article, or paragraph. The fundamental skill comes from read and writing. Read anything, news paper, books, manga, and write a diary, etc. I think they grew up with digital media, especially video, short video, causing these problem. Also they dont use punctuation they write like this which i hate and difficult to read of course in chinese
I don‘t think purely the concept of communicating with the usage of shortforms or emoticons is bad in itself. I think in language there is room for that (to some degree). But I agree that people on the internet often seem to have a problem with a rational discussion. Its still important to see that many people with common sense just dont talk much on the internet. So I guess its not that people are getting stupid, I think its kind of a loud minority problem. Could be wrong though.
This is totally valid. Especially so in my experience. I live in the U.S. and one thing I was bewildered by when I graduated from High School was how terrible the literacy of the students seemed to be. A plethora of people (which is much too many) could barely read a simple paragraph in a book without someone having to correct them or educate them on what the text is actually saying. My brother echoed the same statement and he went to another school. It's honestly baffling. I've had my fair share of pointless arguments on the internet and I came to share the same thought as you did. Often times, I'll try to make my argument in the most simple way I possibly can so everyone can understand it. Yet I'd still be subject to these wild misinterpretations of my original text, forcing me to explain my self over and over until the person(s) I'm responding to actually understand what I'm saying. Now most of the time; they don't. And I just go in these constant circles where I can't even make my argument because they don't seem lack the comprehension to do so, with them even thinking lesser of me and insulting me because of that. Pointless. It's entirely pointless. I've since started to spend less time on social media once I realized I would rarely be able to have a meaningful conversation with someone like I used to on the old internet.
I have recently seen groups of young people standing in a circle texting each other How weird is that. People can text each for hours and yet when they meet face to face they have nothing to say.
Unfortunately, this isn’t just a reality for English speakers. I’m Brazilian, and here in Brazil, things are pretty similar to what you described (or even worse); a lot of people just can’t understand a text written normally (following the spelling and grammar rules). They don’t use punctuation, and they can’t express themselves properly using sentences longer than a tweet. It’s exhausting to keep asking people what they mean by what they wrote because reading a text without punctuation can be interpreted as a statement, question, or whatever, depending on the punctuation that should’ve been used but wasn’t. It feels like we have to guess what the other person had in mind when they wrote something, and if we ask to understand better, we’re seen as arrogant for wanting to belittle others' writing (as if it’s a mistake to want to understand what was said so we can respond correctly). Anyway, the stupidity is so overwhelming that it really gets me down and makes me lose hope in humanity. 😞 And sorry for any mistakes in my English; I don’t know how to speak the language properly, and I use AI to translate my comments from Brazilian Portuguese to English. 😅
I think one thing you need to take into account is that English is not the first language of everyone in the world. There are many different variations of English in parts of the world and it's likely many people did not learn proper writing styles when done as a second language. Another thing is that the modern rules for English are arbitrary and considered flexible. I agree that people should put more effort into their communication, but with character limits people are encouraged to be more abbreviated. Reading is absolutely a lost skill though, so maybe proper writing is lost on most people. Even proper TV journalism has been given up for TikTok videos.
I think some of the issue is common decency as well. Some people instantly resort to insults when they don't agree with what you have said instead of responding with proper reasoning for their opinions.
@DamnladTrap Venting is good, but people are also capable of venting and using reason and not insulting people just because of a different view of something.
This just in: People are stupid. Unfortunately, this is something I noticed decades ago. It's not exactly a new thing. If anything, it may be becoming more pronounced, but the problem has alwas been there.
The formats of social media encourage speed of execution and minimizing of characters, discouraging both thought & the capacity to express thought. Three lines of text elicit misinterpretation or TLDR.
Honestly, seems like the more I write, the more I get ignored. I'm kind of guilty when I skim through posts and messages. When a person rambles on for more than a few sentences about issues I just click on through.
I notice this as well. Most will ignore most of what I write and then misinterpret the part they did read, or take that part they read out of context and get offended. Either way, it frequently leads to them lashing out with an angry or insulting post.
I think it's a combination of the internet being more accessible to people without reading comprehension and computer skills, and the general academic decline we're seeing where children who can't read or do math are being pushed through school. If you think about it, it's a relatively recent phenomenon that Joe Sixpack and Jane Winebottle are able to easily get online and access public forums. A lot of the friction points that used to exist and gatekept the internet are gone. I think we'll see the most dedicated communities retreat back to old fashioned forums or other longer form interaction eventually.
Blame schools. They don't teach critical thinking skills and the education is dumbed down now. Trust me, it is a far cry from the schools I went to when I was younger. I have two kids and some of the homework they bring home makes me shake my head. The US has been falling behind other countries in education for years. Idiocracy is becoming a reality.
American literacy has cratered, and foreigners don't understand English very well in the first place. English is hard. I have this problem whenever I post a question to any mailing list. Most of the early responses are useless, because they clearly don't understand what I've written. It takes a couple more clarifications from me to get any understanding on the other end.
I tend to use a little bit of both proper english and shitty internet writing tbh. Language isn't static and its not perfect either so the way people are oddly strict with grammer and spelling seems to miss the point a lot. A lot of people argue if AAVE is proper english but what they often don't realize is a lot of what is currently AAVE in 20 years is going to become part of what we call normal english. Another thing that bugs me a lot is the rules behind commas. I jumped between public school and multiple different home schooling programs and what I ended up finding out is that the rules behind commas are a bit different with american english, british english, time period... and schools often just pick and choose one and go all out on wiring children to use it without even thinking and it was kind of annoying because jumping between different programs meant I had to pickup whatever standard they just so happened to stick to. If you actually read books you will notice different writers use commas differently to. I ended up just finding out a lot of things in english is very loose and all your really need to do is keep things constant enough so that its a style instead of a error and actually write shit people can understand. If you go back in time people weren't as strict on writing as school would make us believe. We just believe anything old is proper even if for its time it might have been seem as messy bullshit. They were just trying to write stuff people can understand with the knowledge they had and a lot of bugs became features because of it. Though I do believe that a lot of stuff on the internet doesn't really have a good balance and is not that understandable.
I tend to drop words... often in such a fashion that it's difficult to make any sense of what I'm trying to write. Paragraphing... that can be real problem for me. I have a tendency just to run all the divergent thoughts all in one never ending mush...
I agree with everything you said, these kids nowadays lack of reading comprehension because AI will fix their misspelling and grammar. There's no incentive for proper writing and I fear that if we continue this way it will only get worse. I've also made a comment on another youtube channel and most of the people that replied to my comment didn't even read or understand what I was trying to say and started to attack me personally FOR NO REASON whatsoever. It's like people are on the edge of exploding that they don't even bother to take the necessary time to digest new information.
People are indeed getting more stupid when it comes to written English. Nothing bugs me more than someone using the wrong "your/you're", or capitalising random words within a sentence, or neglecting punctuation, making the whole thing a pain in the ass to read. I'm a Gen Z, but I still take my English seriously. I can't take someone seriously whose spelling and punctuation is bad. I'm still trying to maintain a good standard, and I find myself editing comments to fix my errors until I am satisfied with the text.
Should make it clear from context that it is sarcasm or use things like :) ;) or “lol” or “jk” or “/s”. Irl body language and how you say it are communicated but in text-based chat it isn’t
"A Gallup analysis published in March 2020 looked at data collected by the U.S. Department of Education in 2012, 2014, and 2017. It found that 130 million adults in the country have low literacy skills, meaning that more than half (54%) of Americans between the ages of 16 and 74 read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level, according to a piece published in 2022 by APM Research Lab."
A few issues are happening here. First, people don't actually read, they scan. Then they respond to what they think you said, not what you said. Second, no one gives the benefit of the doubt anymore. If something can be taken good or bad, they will assume the bad. Finally, our best and brightest aren't the ones on social media.
Blame the school system(s), parents, and social media for the current situation. They're not comprehending because the mental discipline it takes to read and write properly isn't there.
As a person who has been born and is living in Turkey, naturally English isn't a native language to me. And it just boggles my mind that I am able to talk English many times better than some Native English speakers. Did I mention I'm 14 by the way?
You are 100% correct, voice intonation can change a sentence. I took, where there are no character limits, try to use correct punctuation, that too can change a sentence. Happy Holidays 🤔 now that surprised me.
Could it be, that the lack of proper writing you are facing, might be caused by most people on the internet aren't writing in their native language :) I am for example not a native english speaker. But very good analysis about reading text instead of talking face to face. It seems as if we would read someone elses words and giving them our own character and intentions.
🗣️🚫🔥🔥🔥 It's easier to convey meaning through emojis rather than words.🤧 PS: Also, this felt like DT just trying to stroke his own ego after losing an online argument. PS2: WTH are you trying to gatekeep a language now? 😶
Late Gen X here (since you brought up "boomer"). For me, it depends on the situation. If I'm just chatting with friends over text, or on Facebook Messenger or Instagram, then sure, I'll use phrases like LOL, OMG, etc. I've even used a few meme GIFs from time to time, because they expressed my point better than writing it out. But I agree with you. I think it does come down to the (over)use of technology in modern life, and the short attention spans fostered by many of the apps we use on a daily basis. I've even noticed it in my own life. A break from technology would do all of us a lot of good.
I agree. English is not my first language but I believe in general we (people) getting more stupid . If there is no app for it they cant do it ! Im 66 years old and Social media is full of bs. I try to avoid it as much as possible. Im glad im old....Happy Holidays .
People just wanna interact as fast as possible with whatever is tunnel-visioned on their screen at the moment. And then scroll down a little more. And repeat.
Imo short forms are fine because they’re easy to interpret or lookup as they are often used. Emoticons help convey the tone of the message, as do phases like “lol”, “lamo”, “rofl”. There’s also things like /s meaning sarcasm (the newer form of “lol” or faces made using punctuation marks). Most people tend to overuse emojis if they use them at all. Proper grammar isn’t strictly required unless it actually changes the meaning of the message (don’t eat grandma!)
Software developer of 40+ years here. "Screen blindness" is definitely a thing. You need to be SO careful with interface design and even choosing the words you use. It would be interesting to see serious research in this area.
You're right, it's quite common. I figured it's because there are a lot of people that don't speak English as a first language... that, and the fact people have the attention span of a gnat these days...🙂
I see the challenges as three fold: 1. You can't tell the age of people you are conversing with, and 2. You can't tell the origin of who you are talking with. The young use slang and grammar that is keen to their generation, usually words and slang we dont use. With origin, you have no idea if the person you are conversing with is a native 1st language English speaker. I have talked to many people on the internet who tend to be harsh in their verbiage, and then I see in their profile they are from the Netherlands, or somewhere where its more matter of fact in the delivery, so with their culture they can come off as insulting when its not the intent. Then for the third problem, you have the trolls. Being a jerk is something people need to start shunning, not celebrating. If you are spurning on the trolling your part of the problem.
The public education system in the USA is much worse than in most European, African and Asian countries. Even in Iran and Cuba, people are significantly better educated than in the USA.
I've been there 5-10 yrs ago on FB. There is no solution to this idiotic problem, other than - Quit! Quit as many social medias, as you can - things like FB, Twitter, Instagram and what not. Just don't quit here, as we need your videos :) Peace.
i agree. I try not to text when its an important thing to discuss. especially with my girlfriend. if not face to face which is the best, an actual phone call is still way better than a text
Agree with this 100 percent, unfortunately. I have noticed a real drop in both reading comprehension skills and written communication skills online in general over the last few years. And why not, when slang and brevity is so in vogue right now? (Not that we haven't always had slang; every generation has their unique generational dialect. But there's a time to turn that off and communicate in a structured, shared, understandable way, and a lot of modern posters seem to have lost that.) And it's not just The Youth, either. The Angriest Geriatric Facebook Generation would have failed out of the grammar and composition classes I had to take in middle school in the 1990s. It's usually obvious which group you're dealing with. As a disabled person who does most social interaction online, in writing, it's frustrating and sad. OTOH, it's tricky, too, because there's also the possibility that you're talking to someone who's just learning English and still figuring things out, and in that case you want to be encouraging. As someone who doesn't speak a second language, I've got mad respect for anyone who decides to take up learning *English*, of all things. It's hardly got the gentlest learning curve. So, I think it's important to try to start from a place of understanding and try to find an effective way to communicate. But it usually becomes clear very quickly when someone speaks English and just doesn't know how (or bother with) writing it properly. I also think there's a demographic that seeks the false euphoria of being the first one to slide into the comments with The Zinger or the Real Ultimate Hot Take, and they don't have the time to exercise proper reading comprehension or written composition skills whether they have them or not. That's a whole other problem. :P And I certainly don't have the knowledge to quantify this, but as a third vector I think we can blame COVID, at least for the youngest generations. Spending years of the most critical part of their educational journeys at home, remote, means they missed out on a lot of real communications experience that you just don't get. Sitting there. Watching people talk at you. On Zoom. (I have to sit and watch people talk at me on zoom for classes to keep my work license in good standing. It certainly doesn't improve my communications skills. … Unless I'm taking a course in improving my communications skills. :P) Thanks for inviting me too your Cloud Yelling Party! Definitely less carbs than the last party I went to.
No. Even when you argue with someone face to face, people will misinterpret what you say. When people get upset they naturally misinterpret things. I work at an office where lunch is provided but everyone pays for it out of their salary. This year one of my stupid coworkers got all mad at me for throwing some of my lunch away. I had to explain to her probably 20 times that, "Although this lunch is provided by our company, I have to pay for it with my own money, thus, legally it is 100% my property and I can do whatever I want with it. You have no right to lecture me." She kept saying "But that's rude!" and I had to keep telling her "NO! IT'S NOT RUDE! YOU THINK IT'S RUDE AND THAT IS JUST YOUR OPINION!" Then she kept saying "Yes! It's my opinion so it's rude" Stupid people are everywhere, simple as that lol.
Social media has been the most destructive force upon society, nothing else comes close, it has been the vehicle for a global cultural decay. It has always brought out the bad qualities of people, and been an exaggeration of who that person typically would be IRL. We are now at the point where generations have grown up from birth and under this phenomena, and were not learned into it to a lesser degree across the life-span of social media. Young people today behave worse IRL than the internet edge-lords of previous generation ago, and it is considered "normal", as it is all they have ever known. Seeing someone give a non-consequential opinion about some unimportant topic in a comment, and it won't be long until they are being name-called and insulted. I can't imagine ever interacting with someone IRL like that, but it is commonplace online, and creeping into IRL.
We're not a vicariously stupid species, rather our rationality and consciousness are autonomous, or nonconformist (indeterminate; not ego postmodern). I realize, it's an easy temptation to suppose that whoever responds could be anyone, but in fact, no, those who offer feedback are typically not trolls. Consider this: computer science has subjects almost completely developed out of computer science, itself. Does that make sense to someone who merely uses social media for any reason other than education? Compared to philosophy of science, however, with a history greater than just the past fifty years, the application for computer science toward AI seems crudely anti-intellectual, too.
There is tons of people that lack comprehension skills online and is so frustrating. This has been an issue on a widespread basis for a long time. The amount of times someone has tried to disprove what i say but they misinterpret what i said due to lack of comprehension is something that is only increasing. "Like gtfo here learn to comprehend" i have said this to people many times. There is people out here that don't know what a Rhetorical question looks like, and that sums it up folks. Basic comprehensions skils are gone for many people and its not funny. There is also people that don't know how to discern what you are saying if you don't heavily quote others text because they lack the basic brain power to fill in the blanks of the conversation which is something we do irl when we conversate. Some of it will be Autism not joking.
Before I hit the play button for this video, I already had an answer to the question posed by the title of this video and it was an instant reaction - "Just Stupid", some people at least. And their thought process reveals itself as not worth squat. Be thankful for these chowderheads outing themselves - and remember who they are.
It's not about the Emojis. I remember we used to use 1337 speak and everything was fine. There were idiots on the internet, but the difference is that when somebody was wrong or out of their depth, everyone knew, and they were rightfully laughed out of the room. Nowdays, if feels like you'll write something, someone will come in with an emotional argument that completely misses the point of what you're saying. Then, you write a response that includes a bunch of links to back up your claims, and for some reason YOU look like the idiot. In fact, an army of other idiots with a chip on their shoulder come in to defend this guy! Then you add more sources and write a few more paragraphs, and you get a 2 sentence reply with slogans and buzzwords that sound very true and based, but don't actually substantiate anything. At some point, I think troll culture came full circle. It feels like people used to troll because it's funny, but now they troll because they think it's an effective way to argue.
A lot of people, of all ages, have trained themselves not to read (or watch) beyond the headline. This is not a generational thing. And then they'll often work themselves up about what they imagine that the content is and type a response.
Good topic. We can all see the problem, but it is hard to be sure of what is the major cause of this problem. Or maybe there is not one major cause. When TV became popular, it was blamed for a decrease in reading ability among the population. After all, the less you read the less you practice the skill of reading. However, with the invention of the internet, people had to spend more time reading, at least initially. The early internet was almost all text, with no movie streaming services or RUclips. Now using the internet requires only a functional ability to read, and on top of that, it has removed other sources of reading people used to use. Magazines, newspapers, and books have all suffered as the internet has prospered. One other thing among the many reasons people do not read as well as they should is the lack of time, or the feeling of lack of time. At my job, I have so many emails to read on a daily basis, which is not the main focus of my work, that I have to scan most of them. Too often, this results in me missing something or misreading something, and giving a stupid answer in my reply. I've gotten so used to scanning everything that is not a book I am reading for pleasure, that it is an ingrained habit.
Congrats! That's the dumbest thing I've read today. Pronouns are - what a shock! - a word class in most languages, including yours, English. And using they or them as a singular number pronouns has always been part of English. Look here: _Now leaden slumber with life's strength doth fight;_ _And every one to rest themselves betake,_ _Save thieves, and cares, and troubled minds, that wake._ "every _one_ ... _them_ selves" - that was Shakespeare. But we probably shouldn't listen to him, it's not like he had any major influence on the English language. 🙄
@pillmuncher67 You are illustrating exactly what Derrick was talking about. While some trolls appear to misinterpret comments out of stupidity, you seem to be part of the group that does it deliberately. You know damn well the context I was using when I referred to pronouns. We only use they/them when talking about a hypothetical situation with a hypothetical person who could be of either gender, because it flows more naturally than saying "his or her, he or she" all the time. A person who insists on referring to themselves as multiple people all the time, never mind demanding that others do so, is known as "schizophrenic".
@@maybethisismarq And there it is again, just like I said to the other person, and just like Derrick said. You know perfectly well the kind of "pronouns" I was talking about, but you chose to ignore the actual context in favor of one that better supports your argument. This transgender garbage is one of the many things that is ruining our education system and turning out kids who know what "cultural appropriation" means, but can't add.
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
Are People On Social Media Trolls...Or Just Stupid? Yes.
Bots, 90% of what you see on the internet are AI bots. I might even be a bot.
@@tom-hy1kn Only if you're a cartridge!
@@tom-hy1kn most of what you see on the internet is actually real human stupidity. Believe it or not. It's a sad thing.
There is the possibility that the stupid people love to comment the most , giving us a skewed outlook on how many stupid people there are.
They probably also have relatively more time to write comments. For example, low IQ correlates with being a NEET who has lots of spare time.
i dont comment THAT often..
@@miou-miou- He he! 😁
@@miou-miou- , maybe my theory is off then, lol
yes, stupid people voice are more louder than normal one ....
From my understanding of the situation, a lot of it comes down to issues with reading stamina. Specifically, shorter form text is little to no issue but for something longer like a book - or even a longer article - is difficult to read. A lot of this basically comes down to how a lot of school districts teach reading as a "search for key points" to pass testing, instead of actual comprehension. I was still in school when they made this change and it put me off reading for some time, and it wasn't until later on when I finally had the time to sit down and read books properly again that I got back into it. I now write science fiction, but it's in spite of the school which destroyed my love of reading at the time.
I have noticed this as well. I thought it was just the way I was writing things, but I've noticed people just don't have reading comprehension abilities anymore. It's scary.
Critical thinking, discussion and debate is not taught in the schools of rich Western countries any more.
This is not only in America, but everywhere. Even in Europe.
“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
― George Carlin
I don't think social media is "making people stupid," rather it gives everyone, including stupid people, the ability to broadcast their stupidity to the world.
As for trolls, the best trolls can make people believe that they are just making a stupid post while others reading their posts are left wondering if their post is just trolling or they're just another stupid person making a stupid post.
There was a gautemalan who set a woman on fire recently on the nyc subway and i wondered what it was with that person like if they were possessed or whatever. No the issue is guatemala has an average iq less than 50.
Are you familiar with the movie "Idiocracy"? Many people seem to have taken it as an instructional one instead of satire it was intended to be.
Years ago someone on some forum asked "what is the most important modern invention for you?" The very first answer was along the lines "Internet because I don't have to waste time on thinking, I just ask a question and someone will give me the solution". Many, if not most, people don't want to use their brain. It requires energy and any biologist will tell you that every living creature tries to conserve as much energy as possible.
Thanks, was about to talk about "idiocracy"..
One of the best movies ever made.
It's right on track.
The Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco (1932-2016) once said to the newspaper La Stampa:
“Social networks give the right to speak to a legion of idiots who used to only talk in a bar after a glass of wine, without harming humanity. Back then, they were quickly silenced, but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It’s the invasion of the idiots.”
As a retired Technical Writer, I hear you about the lack of comprehension of written words. Don't forget that there are people who deliberately lie.
I totally agree with your observation. I would include that I think our attention span is so short because it's divided by so many things that we don't really take time to think about what's being said, we just provide a knee jerk reaction. I have caught myself doing that sometimes and now I mostly force myself to take some time before replying, to make sure I understood it the way I thought.
It's actually a great way of seeing things. :)
The most surprising part of this video is that you have only just realised we live in a world full of idiots, the funniest part is the below comments are now using full sentences
Some "idiots" sometimes forget to place full-stop at the end of the sentences. Oh my what a disaster, its almost as people on the internet are trying to live up to high literacy standards.
@@DamnladTrap You got there first - but the irony in their comment was not lost on me today and gave me a smile.
👍👍👍😂😂😂
In all seriousness, people have always been stupid; it's just that nowadays they have internet access.
...including those that need to paint little pictures around the words that they write because they lack the confidence in written language to choose the correct words in the first place, rather than requiring emojis to encourage the reader to select a particular nuance or interpretation of their words.
It’s a lot worse now though, comprehension is at an all time low.
bot sweat shops?
That would explain why they lack reading comprehension. They aren't human.
I'd like to agree with you, but having talked to countless idiots in real life. I'm on the side of, their more than likely real and more than likely that genuinely stupid..
Your = you're
There = their
Definitely = defiantly
Etc, etc... as someone whose native language is not English, I hate it so much...
So many ppl seem to try their hardest to not reason so they can understand things the way it's convenient for them, don't know if it's sa form of cowardice, apathy or just laziness..
*people
Not only English people. I'm Taiwanese, kids these days, even adult do have same problem. They will get mad if you argue with them. They can't focus on one thing for a period of time, can't get the important part of conversation or article, or paragraph. The fundamental skill comes from read and writing. Read anything, news paper, books, manga, and write a diary, etc. I think they grew up with digital media, especially video, short video, causing these problem.
Also
they dont use punctuation
they write like this which i hate and difficult to read of course in chinese
It’s the same here in Brazil. It’s really sad! 😞
I don‘t think purely the concept of communicating with the usage of shortforms or emoticons is bad in itself. I think in language there is room for that (to some degree). But I agree that people on the internet often seem to have a problem with a rational discussion.
Its still important to see that many people with common sense just dont talk much on the internet. So I guess its not that people are getting stupid, I think its kind of a loud minority problem. Could be wrong though.
This is totally valid. Especially so in my experience. I live in the U.S. and one thing I was bewildered by when I graduated from High School was how terrible the literacy of the students seemed to be. A plethora of people (which is much too many) could barely read a simple paragraph in a book without someone having to correct them or educate them on what the text is actually saying.
My brother echoed the same statement and he went to another school. It's honestly baffling.
I've had my fair share of pointless arguments on the internet and I came to share the same thought as you did. Often times, I'll try to make my argument in the most simple way I possibly can so everyone can understand it. Yet I'd still be subject to these wild misinterpretations of my original text, forcing me to explain my self over and over until the person(s) I'm responding to actually understand what I'm saying.
Now most of the time; they don't. And I just go in these constant circles where I can't even make my argument because they don't seem lack the comprehension to do so, with them even thinking lesser of me and insulting me because of that. Pointless. It's entirely pointless.
I've since started to spend less time on social media once I realized I would rarely be able to have a meaningful conversation with someone like I used to on the old internet.
I really relate to what you said; it’s like I’m reading about what happens to me in someone else’s words.
I have recently seen groups of young people standing in a circle texting each other How weird is that. People can text each for hours and yet when they meet face to face they have nothing to say.
Unfortunately, this isn’t just a reality for English speakers. I’m Brazilian, and here in Brazil, things are pretty similar to what you described (or even worse); a lot of people just can’t understand a text written normally (following the spelling and grammar rules). They don’t use punctuation, and they can’t express themselves properly using sentences longer than a tweet.
It’s exhausting to keep asking people what they mean by what they wrote because reading a text without punctuation can be interpreted as a statement, question, or whatever, depending on the punctuation that should’ve been used but wasn’t. It feels like we have to guess what the other person had in mind when they wrote something, and if we ask to understand better, we’re seen as arrogant for wanting to belittle others' writing (as if it’s a mistake to want to understand what was said so we can respond correctly).
Anyway, the stupidity is so overwhelming that it really gets me down and makes me lose hope in humanity. 😞
And sorry for any mistakes in my English; I don’t know how to speak the language properly, and I use AI to translate my comments from Brazilian Portuguese to English. 😅
Yes, I get that all the time. Most of the time they have not read everything I wrote, or mistake me for the OP, etc. It's really bad.
I think one thing you need to take into account is that English is not the first language of everyone in the world. There are many different variations of English in parts of the world and it's likely many people did not learn proper writing styles when done as a second language. Another thing is that the modern rules for English are arbitrary and considered flexible. I agree that people should put more effort into their communication, but with character limits people are encouraged to be more abbreviated.
Reading is absolutely a lost skill though, so maybe proper writing is lost on most people. Even proper TV journalism has been given up for TikTok videos.
I think some of the issue is common decency as well. Some people instantly resort to insults when they don't agree with what you have said instead of responding with proper reasoning for their opinions.
Take it as internet "anonymity" is most used by people to vent their frustrations. Which might be a good thing.
@DamnladTrap Venting is good, but people are also capable of venting and using reason and not insulting people just because of a different view of something.
This just in: People are stupid.
Unfortunately, this is something I noticed decades ago. It's not exactly a new thing. If anything, it may be becoming more pronounced, but the problem has alwas been there.
This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. I was beginning to think that I was the only one that felt this way.
The formats of social media encourage speed of execution and minimizing of characters, discouraging both thought & the capacity to express thought. Three lines of text elicit misinterpretation or TLDR.
Honestly, seems like the more I write, the more I get ignored. I'm kind of guilty when I skim through posts and messages. When a person rambles on for more than a few sentences about issues I just click on through.
I notice this as well. Most will ignore most of what I write and then misinterpret the part they did read, or take that part they read out of context and get offended. Either way, it frequently leads to them lashing out with an angry or insulting post.
i think a good part of it IS stupidity, but i also do think a lot are trolls that DO just want to start fights/arguments
Yes, it's thrilling when one says something and the responses have nothing to do with what was originally said.
The main issue I have with text-based conversation is when people are being sarcastic. Theres no way to know that unless they say so.
I think it's a combination of the internet being more accessible to people without reading comprehension and computer skills, and the general academic decline we're seeing where children who can't read or do math are being pushed through school. If you think about it, it's a relatively recent phenomenon that Joe Sixpack and Jane Winebottle are able to easily get online and access public forums. A lot of the friction points that used to exist and gatekept the internet are gone. I think we'll see the most dedicated communities retreat back to old fashioned forums or other longer form interaction eventually.
it really feels like people have short memory
They probably are not trolls. You just dont understand them. But they also want something to say and you think they are trolling.
Not everyone is going to know proper English. IQ has plummeted across the globe.
They should try harder.
Blame schools. They don't teach critical thinking skills and the education is dumbed down now. Trust me, it is a far cry from the schools I went to when I was younger. I have two kids and some of the homework they bring home makes me shake my head. The US has been falling behind other countries in education for years. Idiocracy is becoming a reality.
American literacy has cratered, and foreigners don't understand English very well in the first place. English is hard. I have this problem whenever I post a question to any mailing list. Most of the early responses are useless, because they clearly don't understand what I've written. It takes a couple more clarifications from me to get any understanding on the other end.
That's correct DT - it's COMPLETELY divorced in consciousness, entirely.
It's mentally short-circuited. Truly so.
Just stupid. But stupid is also generally more vocal.
The internet was a mistake
I could not agree more. Another thing we can thank social media for.
I tend to use a little bit of both proper english and shitty internet writing tbh. Language isn't static and its not perfect either so the way people are oddly strict with grammer and spelling seems to miss the point a lot. A lot of people argue if AAVE is proper english but what they often don't realize is a lot of what is currently AAVE in 20 years is going to become part of what we call normal english. Another thing that bugs me a lot is the rules behind commas. I jumped between public school and multiple different home schooling programs and what I ended up finding out is that the rules behind commas are a bit different with american english, british english, time period... and schools often just pick and choose one and go all out on wiring children to use it without even thinking and it was kind of annoying because jumping between different programs meant I had to pickup whatever standard they just so happened to stick to. If you actually read books you will notice different writers use commas differently to. I ended up just finding out a lot of things in english is very loose and all your really need to do is keep things constant enough so that its a style instead of a error and actually write shit people can understand. If you go back in time people weren't as strict on writing as school would make us believe. We just believe anything old is proper even if for its time it might have been seem as messy bullshit. They were just trying to write stuff people can understand with the knowledge they had and a lot of bugs became features because of it. Though I do believe that a lot of stuff on the internet doesn't really have a good balance and is not that understandable.
I can't even understand a lot of what I read because it is all acronyms. A generation brought up texting on their dumb phones.
I tend to drop words... often in such a fashion that it's difficult to make any sense of what I'm trying to write. Paragraphing... that can be real problem for me. I have a tendency just to run all the divergent thoughts all in one never ending mush...
The first step is self awareness. Good on you.
I agree with everything you said, these kids nowadays lack of reading comprehension because AI will fix their misspelling and grammar. There's no incentive for proper writing and I fear that if we continue this way it will only get worse. I've also made a comment on another youtube channel and most of the people that replied to my comment didn't even read or understand what I was trying to say and started to attack me personally FOR NO REASON whatsoever. It's like people are on the edge of exploding that they don't even bother to take the necessary time to digest new information.
People are indeed getting more stupid when it comes to written English. Nothing bugs me more than someone using the wrong "your/you're", or capitalising random words within a sentence, or neglecting punctuation, making the whole thing a pain in the ass to read. I'm a Gen Z, but I still take my English seriously. I can't take someone seriously whose spelling and punctuation is bad. I'm still trying to maintain a good standard, and I find myself editing comments to fix my errors until I am satisfied with the text.
Apparently the concept of sarcasm is beyond some of these people
Should make it clear from context that it is sarcasm or use things like :) ;) or “lol” or “jk” or “/s”. Irl body language and how you say it are communicated but in text-based chat it isn’t
"A Gallup analysis published in March 2020 looked at data collected by the U.S. Department of Education in 2012, 2014, and 2017. It found that 130 million adults in the country have low literacy skills, meaning that more than half (54%) of Americans between the ages of 16 and 74 read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level, according to a piece published in 2022 by APM Research Lab."
A few issues are happening here. First, people don't actually read, they scan. Then they respond to what they think you said, not what you said. Second, no one gives the benefit of the doubt anymore. If something can be taken good or bad, they will assume the bad. Finally, our best and brightest aren't the ones on social media.
To answer your question... both!
But most likely you're encountering bots.
Blame the school system(s), parents, and social media for the current situation. They're not comprehending because the mental discipline it takes to read and write properly isn't there.
Being able to remain anonymous on the internet is what enables trolls.
As a person who has been born and is living in Turkey, naturally English isn't a native language to me. And it just boggles my mind that I am able to talk English many times better than some Native English speakers.
Did I mention I'm 14 by the way?
You are 100% correct, voice intonation can change a sentence. I took, where there are no character limits, try to use correct punctuation, that too can change a sentence.
Happy Holidays 🤔 now that surprised me.
Could it be, that the lack of proper writing you are facing, might be caused by most people on the internet aren't writing in their native language :) I am for example not a native english speaker.
But very good analysis about reading text instead of talking face to face. It seems as if we would read someone elses words and giving them our own character and intentions.
I couldn't agree more,I have been noticing the same thing for some time now.
I think there is a lot of bots, And a mix of stupid people, and plain trolls. I get it far too much.
lol, . Just had to put that in, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
🗣️🚫🔥🔥🔥
It's easier to convey meaning through emojis rather than words.🤧
PS: Also, this felt like DT just trying to stroke his own ego after losing an online argument.
PS2: WTH are you trying to gatekeep a language now? 😶
Seems listening comprehension is on the decline as well…
Late Gen X here (since you brought up "boomer"). For me, it depends on the situation. If I'm just chatting with friends over text, or on Facebook Messenger or Instagram, then sure, I'll use phrases like LOL, OMG, etc. I've even used a few meme GIFs from time to time, because they expressed my point better than writing it out. But I agree with you. I think it does come down to the (over)use of technology in modern life, and the short attention spans fostered by many of the apps we use on a daily basis. I've even noticed it in my own life. A break from technology would do all of us a lot of good.
I agree. English is not my first language but I believe in general we (people) getting more stupid . If there is no app for it they cant do it ! Im 66 years old and Social media is full of bs. I try to avoid it as much as possible. Im glad im old....Happy Holidays .
People just wanna interact as fast as possible with whatever is tunnel-visioned on their screen at the moment. And then scroll down a little more. And repeat.
So true. I may also be accused of being too old, or the old fashion way is out of date. At least it worked.
Could be gaslighting, though. Possibly from bots, too.
A lot of people can’t concentrate for longer than 15 seconds and both you and I are making videos a lot longer than that.
Very, Very, Very true...
"Me fail English? That's unpossible!" -- Ralph Wiggum.
Imo short forms are fine because they’re easy to interpret or lookup as they are often used. Emoticons help convey the tone of the message, as do phases like “lol”, “lamo”, “rofl”. There’s also things like /s meaning sarcasm (the newer form of “lol” or faces made using punctuation marks). Most people tend to overuse emojis if they use them at all. Proper grammar isn’t strictly required unless it actually changes the meaning of the message (don’t eat grandma!)
I always do that, never acronyms. And pretty much always proper english.
thats not just the internet DT its been happening to me my whole life, ppl not understanding and taking everything i say wrong.
Software developer of 40+ years here. "Screen blindness" is definitely a thing. You need to be SO careful with interface design and even choosing the words you use. It would be interesting to see serious research in this area.
Sounds like old man yelling in the clouds
You're right, it's quite common. I figured it's because there are a lot of people that don't speak English as a first language... that, and the fact people have the attention span of a gnat these days...🙂
I see the challenges as three fold: 1. You can't tell the age of people you are conversing with, and 2. You can't tell the origin of who you are talking with. The young use slang and grammar that is keen to their generation, usually words and slang we dont use. With origin, you have no idea if the person you are conversing with is a native 1st language English speaker. I have talked to many people on the internet who tend to be harsh in their verbiage, and then I see in their profile they are from the Netherlands, or somewhere where its more matter of fact in the delivery, so with their culture they can come off as insulting when its not the intent. Then for the third problem, you have the trolls. Being a jerk is something people need to start shunning, not celebrating. If you are spurning on the trolling your part of the problem.
The public education system in the USA is much worse than in most European, African and Asian countries. Even in Iran and Cuba, people are significantly better educated than in the USA.
I've been there 5-10 yrs ago on FB.
There is no solution to this idiotic problem, other than - Quit! Quit as many social medias, as you can - things like FB, Twitter, Instagram and what not.
Just don't quit here, as we need your videos :) Peace.
no one on youtube can write properly anymore
i agree. I try not to text when its an important thing to discuss. especially with my girlfriend. if not face to face which is the best, an actual phone call is still way better than a text
Agree with this 100 percent, unfortunately. I have noticed a real drop in both reading comprehension skills and written communication skills online in general over the last few years. And why not, when slang and brevity is so in vogue right now? (Not that we haven't always had slang; every generation has their unique generational dialect. But there's a time to turn that off and communicate in a structured, shared, understandable way, and a lot of modern posters seem to have lost that.)
And it's not just The Youth, either. The Angriest Geriatric Facebook Generation would have failed out of the grammar and composition classes I had to take in middle school in the 1990s.
It's usually obvious which group you're dealing with. As a disabled person who does most social interaction online, in writing, it's frustrating and sad.
OTOH, it's tricky, too, because there's also the possibility that you're talking to someone who's just learning English and still figuring things out, and in that case you want to be encouraging. As someone who doesn't speak a second language, I've got mad respect for anyone who decides to take up learning *English*, of all things. It's hardly got the gentlest learning curve. So, I think it's important to try to start from a place of understanding and try to find an effective way to communicate. But it usually becomes clear very quickly when someone speaks English and just doesn't know how (or bother with) writing it properly.
I also think there's a demographic that seeks the false euphoria of being the first one to slide into the comments with The Zinger or the Real Ultimate Hot Take, and they don't have the time to exercise proper reading comprehension or written composition skills whether they have them or not. That's a whole other problem. :P
And I certainly don't have the knowledge to quantify this, but as a third vector I think we can blame COVID, at least for the youngest generations. Spending years of the most critical part of their educational journeys at home, remote, means they missed out on a lot of real communications experience that you just don't get. Sitting there. Watching people talk at you. On Zoom.
(I have to sit and watch people talk at me on zoom for classes to keep my work license in good standing. It certainly doesn't improve my communications skills. … Unless I'm taking a course in improving my communications skills. :P)
Thanks for inviting me too your Cloud Yelling Party! Definitely less carbs than the last party I went to.
People either don't have context when reading posts/articles or there already bringing the wrong context from other social media.
No. Even when you argue with someone face to face, people will misinterpret what you say. When people get upset they naturally misinterpret things.
I work at an office where lunch is provided but everyone pays for it out of their salary. This year one of my stupid coworkers got all mad at me for throwing some of my lunch away. I had to explain to her probably 20 times that,
"Although this lunch is provided by our company, I have to pay for it with my own money, thus, legally it is 100% my property and I can do whatever I want with it. You have no right to lecture me."
She kept saying "But that's rude!" and I had to keep telling her
"NO! IT'S NOT RUDE! YOU THINK IT'S RUDE AND THAT IS JUST YOUR OPINION!"
Then she kept saying "Yes! It's my opinion so it's rude"
Stupid people are everywhere, simple as that lol.
Social media has been the most destructive force upon society, nothing else comes close, it has been the vehicle for a global cultural decay.
It has always brought out the bad qualities of people, and been an exaggeration of who that person typically would be IRL. We are now at the point where generations have grown up from birth and under this phenomena, and were not learned into it to a lesser degree across the life-span of social media. Young people today behave worse IRL than the internet edge-lords of previous generation ago, and it is considered "normal", as it is all they have ever known.
Seeing someone give a non-consequential opinion about some unimportant topic in a comment, and it won't be long until they are being name-called and insulted. I can't imagine ever interacting with someone IRL like that, but it is commonplace online, and creeping into IRL.
We're not a vicariously stupid species, rather our rationality and consciousness are autonomous, or nonconformist (indeterminate; not ego postmodern). I realize, it's an easy temptation to suppose that whoever responds could be anyone, but in fact, no, those who offer feedback are typically not trolls.
Consider this: computer science has subjects almost completely developed out of computer science, itself. Does that make sense to someone who merely uses social media for any reason other than education? Compared to philosophy of science, however, with a history greater than just the past fifty years, the application for computer science toward AI seems crudely anti-intellectual, too.
There is tons of people that lack comprehension skills online and is so frustrating. This has been an issue on a widespread basis for a long time.
The amount of times someone has tried to disprove what i say but they misinterpret what i said due to lack of comprehension is something that is only increasing. "Like gtfo here learn to comprehend" i have said this to people many times.
There is people out here that don't know what a Rhetorical question looks like, and that sums it up folks. Basic comprehensions skils are gone for many people and its not funny. There is also people that don't know how to discern what you are saying if you don't heavily quote others text because they lack the basic brain power to fill in the blanks of the conversation which is something we do irl when we conversate.
Some of it will be Autism not joking.
Sounds like you have an “internet crisis” and should take a step back.
Same thing for Portuguese, German and French so I suppose it is a general thing
Before I hit the play button for this video, I already had an answer to the question posed by the title of this video and it was an instant reaction - "Just Stupid", some people at least. And their thought process reveals itself as not worth squat. Be thankful for these chowderheads outing themselves - and remember who they are.
It's the sun activity. We're hitting another solar maximum. This one appears to be on the level of (or larger than) the Carrington event.
It's not about the Emojis. I remember we used to use 1337 speak and everything was fine. There were idiots on the internet, but the difference is that when somebody was wrong or out of their depth, everyone knew, and they were rightfully laughed out of the room. Nowdays, if feels like you'll write something, someone will come in with an emotional argument that completely misses the point of what you're saying. Then, you write a response that includes a bunch of links to back up your claims, and for some reason YOU look like the idiot. In fact, an army of other idiots with a chip on their shoulder come in to defend this guy! Then you add more sources and write a few more paragraphs, and you get a 2 sentence reply with slogans and buzzwords that sound very true and based, but don't actually substantiate anything. At some point, I think troll culture came full circle. It feels like people used to troll because it's funny, but now they troll because they think it's an effective way to argue.
Actually, I think that it is due to the lack of training in our school systems more than anything else.
A lot of people, of all ages, have trained themselves not to read (or watch) beyond the headline. This is not a generational thing.
And then they'll often work themselves up about what they imagine that the content is and type a response.
Might be our limitation also, since we are not equipped to deal with so much information that we are bombard with every minute.
Or could it be that to the most of the Earth population English is not native language?
Keep doing your thing this channel is great.
Viewing all the responses on this video, I think it is safe to day you hit a sore spot here.
I couldn't agree with you more.
Good topic. We can all see the problem, but it is hard to be sure of what is the major cause of this problem. Or maybe there is not one major cause. When TV became popular, it was blamed for a decrease in reading ability among the population. After all, the less you read the less you practice the skill of reading. However, with the invention of the internet, people had to spend more time reading, at least initially. The early internet was almost all text, with no movie streaming services or RUclips. Now using the internet requires only a functional ability to read, and on top of that, it has removed other sources of reading people used to use. Magazines, newspapers, and books have all suffered as the internet has prospered.
One other thing among the many reasons people do not read as well as they should is the lack of time, or the feeling of lack of time. At my job, I have so many emails to read on a daily basis, which is not the main focus of my work, that I have to scan most of them. Too often, this results in me missing something or misreading something, and giving a stupid answer in my reply. I've gotten so used to scanning everything that is not a book I am reading for pleasure, that it is an ingrained habit.
May I move my dog face to the banana patch?
My spelling and grammar is awful. But I always try and make decent sentences.
The one that gets me the worst pissed off is "Prolly" instead of "Probably".....!
fr fr no cap
hahaha yeah I find some of that lazy writing. Slackers!
based
It's because we're teaching our kids about genders and pronouns instead of reading and writing.
Congrats! That's the dumbest thing I've read today.
Pronouns are - what a shock! - a word class in most languages, including yours, English. And using they or them as a singular number pronouns has always been part of English. Look here:
_Now leaden slumber with life's strength doth fight;_
_And every one to rest themselves betake,_
_Save thieves, and cares, and troubled minds, that wake._
"every _one_ ... _them_ selves" - that was Shakespeare. But we probably shouldn't listen to him, it's not like he had any major influence on the English language. 🙄
@pillmuncher67 You are illustrating exactly what Derrick was talking about. While some trolls appear to misinterpret comments out of stupidity, you seem to be part of the group that does it deliberately. You know damn well the context I was using when I referred to pronouns.
We only use they/them when talking about a hypothetical situation with a hypothetical person who could be of either gender, because it flows more naturally than saying "his or her, he or she" all the time. A person who insists on referring to themselves as multiple people all the time, never mind demanding that others do so, is known as "schizophrenic".
Pronouns are apart of reading and writing. You used a few of them in your comment….
@@maybethisismarq And there it is again, just like I said to the other person, and just like Derrick said. You know perfectly well the kind of "pronouns" I was talking about, but you chose to ignore the actual context in favor of one that better supports your argument.
This transgender garbage is one of the many things that is ruining our education system and turning out kids who know what "cultural appropriation" means, but can't add.
Misspelling, incorrect words, and lousy grammar indicate poor thinking.
Its because of the zombies apocalypse that coming...smart phone is the first part of the training to become a certified one.
My favourite distro.