` I agree. People talk using informal colloquialisms. That differs greatly from the written word. All informal speech is littered with idioms, fractured sentences, slang, etc. In US urban schools however, is where both speech and the written word disintegrate. `
Using 'both' where there's no need to? Especially when it's used and then followed by three (or more, as I heard once ) syntactic elements.
The worst corruptions are those that annoy me from the first time I hear them. They become popular, and irritate me to no end. Then, after they fade from use, I find that I have begun to use them.
I, personally? 'both' In my opinion (who else's would it be?) If I think of any more I'll get back to you! But what about 'up' as a suffix? Check up, wait up, follow up, wake up. If I think of any more I'll get back to you!! And what about aphorisms? For example, As welcome as a fart in a crowded lift (or elevator), especially for anyone who's going to the top floor.
About poverty and the streets, you might check out some of the live interviews with black radicals in the 60's, who also grew up poor. Compared to today's rappers, they spoke like Hamlet.
Many years ago I met an American guy who was busking in Switzerland. We starting discussing someone he figured I knew. He told me proudly, "I was at his wedding when he got married!"
And online, where writing is a substitute for speech. People write to communicate in the most basic way, and so they tend not to put a lot of thought or effort into how they write. And then this is compounded by the fact that many use mobile devices with crappy input methods and auto-complete features, so that they can't even be bothered with capitalization and punctuation. I've seen several posts (not on PF) that are just a stream of words with no punctuation, and I don't even bother reading those.
I was never great, but did do better than I do today. I've had some issues of a personal nature that affected how I think while I'm writing. I've never had the vocabulary I wished I did. In any case, Here is a study done on this topic. It is likely one of many. It reports that the use of new technology and the necessary grammar and vocabulary needed to keep the costs of use to a minimum have created new languages and grammar. It also says that educators have a role to play. http://www.academia.edu/6160897/Writing_Decline_in_Youngsters_and_Teens_Does_Writing_Reform_Work
` US English can be vexing for foreigners. For example; "I chopped the tree down then I chopped it up." `
More tragic than the loss of language is the loss of reason in favor of pseudo-wisdom, such as that spouted by members of political cults. They are the fundamentalists of the political realm, eshewing all critical thinking and effort to learn and stick to facts and employ reason in favor of memetic ideas and ill-defined notions and labels mutually reinforced by others of the same cult and information silos.
Kinda veering off-topic; although, I must admit, you said it well. You failed to refute the poster's point, too.
I suspect that FB does attract illiterates .. along with literates. I think for people who don't ordinarily feel that they have a voice (the poorly educated etc), something like FB is probably a boon. They can almost form comprehensible sentences, and make enough of an approximation of spelling to get a vague sense of meaning across. People actually respond to them. For many, it's the first time they've ever done any sort of 'public speaking', and the only way they'll ever have anything like a captive audience. I don't believe that educational standards are plummeting (though there is probably too much class time spent on non-basics), but I believe that entrenched poor diction and language skills are passed on to children by parents, without any attempt at correction. Look at certain Americans and their 'axe' (instead of 'ask'), just as one small example. Why aren't their parents correcting that, early? What sort of parent doesn't think to themselves .. 'well gee whiz, if I let my kid go out into the adult world saying 'axe', there's little likelihood of him/her being taken seriously in the professional world - perhaps I should work on fixing that, in order to give my kid the best possible chance of future success and financial security etc'? I axe you, what kind of sh!tty and bone lazy parent does that!
But why would they go out of their way to write things incorrectly, in a way which renders their message unworkable? Eg, saying things like 'off of', when the correct wording is simply 'off'. Or mixing up 'then' and 'than'. Or spelling errors. These are the kinds of errors which tells us the person is not entirely literate.
that reads as something a 5 year old would say. surely that sort of wrongness doesn't issue from adult mouths?
Especially if they choose, for their own convenience, to believe the impact is no more significant than the quality of their FB posts.
But, we have spell-checks that not only correct spelling, but also grammar. Yet people keep making the most stupendous of mistakes. How lazy can one be?