It may just be me, but it seems as though a good chunk of society now considers it "cool" to be a total idiot. And I'm not talking just people doing the dumb things that people always do, I mean legitimately acting like you are a completely uneducated human being. When did it become fashionable to sound stupid? If I am having a conversation with someone who uses the words "funner", "ain't", or "daaaang", and neglects to pluralize words that should be pluralized, then I shall turn and walk away from that person, pitying them. But all of the sudden it appears as though I am in the minority here. I have been paying close attention lately in anticipation of writing this, and I cannot get through an entire day with at least ONE person acting this way.
I know the whole urban dictionary phenomenon is trend now a days, and I also know that I am a very old soul, but what is happening to our generation if it is perceived as okay to be dumb? I don't want my niece and nephew, let alone my future CHILDREN growing up talking like they never graduated second grade. It's embarrassing to even hear these people, because I would be willing to bet that most of them are at least reasonably intelligent. I do live on a college campus, so I would have to assume that the people I encounter at school have some semblance of brain power to use grammatically correct terms and real words. But when I have to endure an entire elevator ride of two people using the word "ax" instead of "asked" or saying "I seen" instead of "I saw/have seen", I have some serious concerns. If (I hope I hope I hope) there are others of you out there who feel the same as I do, I am thinking of starting a movement against Acceptable Ignorance. If I am the only one, then I guess the only solution is for me to go be friends with Britney Spears and accept the fate of the stupidity epidemic.
5 comments:
I am afraid to leave you a comment because I might say/write
something dumb...j/p
I agree with what you wrote but I know many,many people who are smart but choose to relax their vocab( I think I just did ) when they're with friends. I'm guilty of doing the same on occasion. It's not entirely acceptable but I understand it...I understand it under certain circumstances.
I don't say "ax" though, lol.
Hi Kim,
I feel your pain.
It bothers me (like... REALLY, REALLY bothers me) that 99% of the people who talk that way, actually DO NOT talk that way. They know how to speak proper English but choose not to. It bothers me to even see it online.
I think the "pressures" from society nowadays to intentionally look and sound stupid/uneducated is much too great for people to overcome.
Priscilla
I completely agree with you. I really hate when people do not know when to at least pretend they are smart and have an education.I do know that when I am with my close group of friends we use slang and our own "words", but I also know how to carry a normal conversation with someone else. I think that is where our generation needs to learn how to seperate their "big boy/girl" words from their slang.
Kim, you couldn't have said this any better. It really seems as if it has almost become fashionable to sound like a complete moron, not to mention act like one. I am taking a business class online at SJSU, Introduction to Marketing, in which work in assigned groups for written assignments. I often play the role of editor and I am absolutely appalled with how poorly some of my group members’ write. Their work is overflowing with misspellings, poor grammar, slang and misused words that were obviously suggested by Microsoft Word's thesaurus in an attempt to boost the intellectual worth of their assignment. It is just disappointing that peoples use of slang and informal speech has become such a bad habit that it carries over into our work. Don't get me wrong, I am not against slang by any means because I too speak it. We just need to learn how to draw the line between our casual and professional and intellectual speech.
Wow, what a rant that was. I guess I should step off my soap box right about now. :)
I'll admit I was like this in middle school (and parts of high school). I'd laugh with my friends and compete for who would get the lowest grades. Or who could do the least amount of work and still pass an assignment (I win ... inside book cover summary for a book report -- got an A. I rule).
But yeah, I detest that sort of behavior now. Guess it took a while for me to mature. Though many could argue I'm still pretty immature anyway. :/
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