The quality of writing on the internet has dropped considerably over the years. Why? Are we not teaching our children enough about grammar? Is the schooling system faulty? Or is everyone just getting really, really lazy? I vote for the last of the three.

Every since Scott Fahlman, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, decided to type the first emoticon, the world has given up trying to display emotions through writing. Who needs words when you can use a :)?

Fahlman's thoughts on the matter (quoted from Computer World UK):

As I discuss on my web page, some people who encounter this phenomenon for the first time tend to go a bit crazy for a while, just like people who discover that you can include multiple colours and fancy fonts in an online document. They generally settle down after a while, but until they do, these people can be annoying to those of us who have been using this stuff for many years, and who try to use them sparingly - and also to those writers who see no need for smiley faces in the first place.

It is true. Some people can get quite upset by the use of a simple emoticon. What's my opinion (if you have not already determined it by the tone of this rant)?

I think emoticons should be used sparingly. I only see a need to use emoticons in extreme cases where emotion is just too difficult to explain. In today's world, everyone is too sped up to use anything but emoticons. Typing out your feelings on a matter just take "forever."

But what can I say? I guess that is what we get for a decline in content quality for a rise of content quantity. My advice, use emoticons occassionally. Think of it, we could have all been excellent writers by now if it was not for fast-paces around the internet! I mean, look at all the people who have blogs!

tags: internet, writing, emoticons

Category: Technology, August 2009