(09.02.11)

So the other day, a friend of mine, Dana, posts a message confessing that she judges whether or not she'll accept a friend request by the person's mastery of the English language. And, ya'll know me, I see nothing wrong with that. Hell, I'll even DELETE a friend I know in the "real world" if their English is horrible. It's one thing to use slang and vernacular, it's another thing entirely to consistently use the wrong "their/there/they're" or "too/to/two" or "you're/your." Consistent improper grammar, spelling, and punctuation demonstrates a lack of education to me. And those that lack fundamental English skills are not those that I care to have in my stratosphere.

I am, in no way, expecting a person's vocabulary to be large or their style choices to be eloquent. I'm simply asking for folks to demonstrate rudimentary comprehension of basic English.

Now, as John Cheese wrote in an article on cracked.com,

Once upon a time you could get away with not knowing the difference between "their" and "they're" because in spoken conversation they sound the same. Online, everybody can see that you weren't paying attention in fourth grade when you mix up "your" and "you're."

Remember that text is going to be how you make your first impression over the internet; if every third word you type is misspelled, people will automatically assume that you're a moron. Even if the public school system fails you, there are browsers that come with spellcheck built-in. Me, I used Microsoft Word to type this article, simply because it checks my spelling as I type.

Of course, I wholeheartedly agree with that. As did Janeira and she even tried to tell some folks on Facebook that what you type matters, only to get her head bitten off and told that "it's just Facebook." And to that I say, these people who think it is "JUST Facebook" also are the ones who think it's "just a job" and "just a paycheck" and never aspire for a career. So those folks have no need to be concerned about whether or not a potential employer or mate or college is going to enter their names into a search engine -- the type of people they associate themselves with would never have the wherewithal or the inclination (in the case of an employer) to do so -- so they have no worries about what they post on "JUST Facebook." Or, worse yet, they think that whatever results come up are perfectly acceptable.

Those are not the type of people I want to associate with and I'm sure they feel the same way -- like I'm "uppity" and "pretentious." WHAT.EV.ER!

It's wasted breath.

One day my children may enter my name in google. I want to be able to be proud of what they see.

These things actually matter people!

I promise they do.

The world is constantly changing -- faster than we imagined possible and the Internet is a LARGE part of that. We MUST adjust and adapt. It's not even a matter of not conforming or "the man" trying to force people into doing things a certain way. It just IS.

Barack Obama even addressed it in his SOTU speech. There is simply a larger gap in blue collar and white collar -- because of technology. You don't need a thousand steelworkers anymore with the machination of everything. Now you need 10 workers with electrical and engineering knowledge to run the machines that do the work of 1000. Those 10 workers need an education. It's simply REALITY. Education and adaptation people! The era of generations of car makers or steelworkers or cobblers or whatever simply doesn't exist anymore. They've been eradicated and replaced with machines and while that may seem cruel and unusual, it is EVOLUTION and ADVANCEMENT. I have to believe that God gave us this ability to work smarter not harder.

It's just we, as a people, don't seem to be keeping up as we should because we're so busy blaming someone else or longing for the days of yore but we can't get stuck in that. We must evolve and accept that one day, a drive thru may not be manned by a person but by a machine that takes our order and relays it electronically to a food preparation machine which then makes the food and sends it down a conveyor for you to pick up once you've swiped your card. Then what will the GED recipient with a rudimentary understanding of the English language do?

Hell, prescriptions aren't even written anymore. They're electronically sent in and handled by a pharmacy technician who prepares the order and then has the pharmacist double check it. Then you come pick up the meds. That may very well go away soon. A machine will receive the order and then mechanically prepare it. That does away with at least one human position which saves CVS at least 28k a year PER PERSON. Just imagine what a system like that can do across thousands of stores. See?!?! See ...