Pet-Peeve Thread 4: More peeve than you can handle.

My peeve is text talk / internet talk.


I have no problem with spelling errors or grammar problems. Those are easy enough to mess up. However I really hate internet/text talk. It's overly lazy and it's also hard to read. Phrases like LOL I accept and use because that is easy to get. It's also better than typing hahahahahahaha.

However it's things like : "how r u? IM g8" I hate it. It annoys me. I know now I've said this I'll get at least one text talk reply. But that's fine. I may even have used this before I don't know.

I just keep seeing more and more stuff like "M I RITE?" and it always takes me longer to read it than if they had typed "Am I right?" but I know I can't be the only one here who hates this crap.
 
I don't have a facebook page and don't plan to get one. My reasons are nothing to do with been paranoid. Mine are :

1) Anyone I really want to know what they did that day, I'll talk too. Directly on phone , in person or on a messager. Otherwise I don't really care what you do.

I, too, dislike facebook, twitter, and all that garbage. I hate mobile phones too, but not so much.

Firstly, I dislike facebook because it homogenizes relationships. Even with e-mail, you had to actually choose who would receive your e-mail. Now, you can put anything up on facebook and everyone can see it, and so long as you get enough responses, that's all that matters. Because I'm not on facebook I have missed every single engagement of my 'friends' for almost two years because they cannot be bothered to ask about me. At first, they said, "Oh, you're not on facebook. Sorry, I'll have to remember to ask you." Now it's, "Why don't you get on facebook? Stop making it hard for us to contact you." Well, **** you if contacting me is such a ****ing chore. It was a fine method of contact in 200-****ing-5.

Secondly, I hate twitter and facebook because it is completely narcissistic. If I e-mail or text someone I get no response. Even if it's important, or a personal message. But if I twit them something inane or ping them a link on facebook, they'll reply. They do this because the discussion is public and they get to show off their friends/contacts/opinions. They get to act like mini-celebrities. I've been told that this is my ludditeness, rather, people respond to twits because it's easier. Their phone beeps or their computer goes 'ping' or whatever the **** because they're signed in. Well guess what; you can stay ****ing signed in 24/7 to your e-mail account. You can keep your phone on 24/7 and get texts. Why are you always checking your twitter? Because it's your own little cult of personality: how many people "follow" me? I can tweet Simon Pegg or Nathan Fillion or whoever the **** and be a comment on their twitter and look all important. It's ****ing shallow. It's all just chasing fame, trying to appear important.

Thirdly, I hate this stuff because it is completely chaotic. Someone's twitter feed will ramble on six or seven different subjects that are unconnected, facebook pages link to random groups - it is the mess of the human mind thrown up, unfiltered, onto others. People are all pretty ****ing crazy, but we generally have the decency to not inflict our craziness on others. We have our little tactics to get through the day with the minimum of fuss, and we generally don't like to have other people inflict their neuroses on us. But navigating a twitter feed that has no purpose or viewing a facebook or myspace profile is just that person's neuroses (and everyone else's who cares to comment and respond) is up there. Sure, it's navigatable, but it's not so much that the person reading is the problem, but the twitterer, the facebooker, is revealing themselves to anyone who bothers to look. This is why you get all the ****ing drama. Someone goes to their twitter or facebook because they share a love of porcelain pigs, but one of them turns out to be a NRA member and the other is a school teacher and all of a sudden, a sphere of discussion on which they never would have been involved is now the only discussion between them. Contrast this with how this forum (and others like it) are designed and you realise that structure is very important to allow people to actually converse in a pleasant manner.

There is, however, a wonderful aspect to twitter that I enjoy. I like how it's succinct. When people treat twitter like a news blog, it's great because you have to really choose your words and it leads for some very distilled information. But that's really it in a nutshell: Facebook, twitter, Myspace are all fine when there is an express point to it, a specific purpose. "Networking" is not a specific purpose, "networking" means "selling yourself". The purpose of the blog or twitter is to put yourself up on the internet in full view because you are something people should know about. This isn't the same as, say, having a deviantArt page. That's selling your work, not you. Not too long ago, fame was the "sweet perfume" of important deeds. You got fame by doing something. But today, people want to be famous for doing nothing. They were raised to be told how special they were and expect the world to listen to them even though they've done nothing worthwhile. A twitter/blog/facebook/myspace/dA page/forum is fine if it's a meeting place for a specific group or a place to showcase your work. But if it's just to talk about your personal life... Look at the news now. It's Bill O'Reilly and Bill Maher just ranting at you with their opinions. Who cares? They're not philosophers or journalists or scientists or anyone in any authority. They're just the loudest whiners in the room. They take their personal opinions and broadcast them into the public sphere. It's sick. It is the reality TV show generation; it is chasing fame, it is narcissism, and I can't ****ing stand it.

But then maybe I'm just bitter. The whole exercise reminds me of when people would throw parties or go to the pub and I wouldn't be invited. And when I did go, it was like I could just leave and no one would notice. And they never would do anything else.

My peeve is text talk / internet talk.


I have no problem with spelling errors or grammar problems. Those are easy enough to mess up. However I really hate internet/text talk. It's overly lazy and it's also hard to read. Phrases like LOL I accept and use because that is easy to get. It's also better than typing hahahahahahaha.

However it's things like : "how r u? IM g8" I hate it. It annoys me. I know now I've said this I'll get at least one text talk reply. But that's fine. I may even have used this before I don't know.

I just keep seeing more and more stuff like "M I RITE?" and it always takes me longer to read it than if they had typed "Am I right?" but I know I can't be the only one here who hates this crap.

What's worse is that people speak like that "ironically" and then they use it so much it stops being ironic.

I don't care for LOL. I prefer to just right "HAH!" or "That's hysterical." It annoys me precisely for the reason you said: it is lazy. If you can't be bothered to type out the word, the chances are you're not thinking even remotely what you're saying. You're operating on autopilot, so what are the odds you're going to say anything worth reading?

It takes time and effort to have meaningful relationships with people. It's hard ****ing work. But with all this social networking, when a relationship becomes hard people just dump them and go to another person because they can have instantaneous communication with dozens of people. And so those relationships are only ever the shallowest relationships.

It's the irony of our age, I think, that we have the most comprehensive social networking in history, and yet there is more alienation and loneliness than ever before.
 
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I too have missed out on Engagements, weddings, and even freaking births because I don't have a facebook. Glad to see someone agrees with me that facebook makes people lazy.

Asshats. The lot of them.
 
I'm glad it's not just me. It's ****ing atrocious that people put up super-meaningful stuff about themselves and then don't give a **** who does and doesn't find out. Can't be that ****ing important then can it?

Next con we're at, we can rant about this for days.
 
I make up everything I post on my Facebook, including my friends and family.

Twitter is great though. You just have to follow the right people.
 
How about people who constantly complain about those who have Facebook/Twitter? Not everyone tells you to get one. I don't. No need to write everyone off who has one. You don't want one, that's fine with me. Don't tell me to **** off or anything because I have it and use it.
 
You guys sound like my grandma. Sheesh.

Or the people that said the same thing about cell phones 10 years ago.
 
If you weren't invited to a wedding because the invitations were facebook-only then those people are tacky and cheap and you wouldn't have wanted to go anyway.

Also, I agree with Planet-Man, for the most part, though I don't think facebook is some kind of social necessity and I totally understand why people don't give a ****. That being said, people who don't want a facebook should stop whining defiantly about how terrible it is and people who like facebook should stop pestering those who don't want one. Basically, everyone should shut up forever.
 
I don't care for LOL. I prefer to just right "HAH!" or "That's hysterical." It annoys me precisely for the reason you said: it is lazy. If you can't be bothered to type out the word, the chances are you're not thinking even remotely what you're saying. You're operating on autopilot, so what are the odds you're going to say anything worth reading?


See the problem with that is the internet has no tone of voice. I see "HA!" or "Ha ha" I automatically assume it's sarcasm. That is why I use LOL or if available a laughing smiley like so :lol:




As for the facebook stuff of not been invited to weddings. Is that why I was not invited to the royal wedding yesterday? I don't have Prince William's facebook page memorized or added?
 
I make up everything I post on my Facebook, including my friends and family.

Twitter is great though. You just have to follow the right people.

This is true, about Twitter. It's very useful, and in a lot of Journalism classes at my school it is a requirement that you have one. I think many of my friends who I've talked to who say Twitter is dumb and they will never get one -- and these are people who are on their Facebooks all the time -- will have one by the end of the year, if not next year.

I really hope that is true about your Facebook, Proj, haha.
 
How about people who constantly complain about those who have Facebook/Twitter? Not everyone tells you to get one. I don't. No need to write everyone off who has one. You don't want one, that's fine with me. Don't tell me to **** off or anything because I have it and use it.

Except that, yes, everyone does tell you to get one. I go to exchange contact detail with someone, they tell me to get facebook. I go to a website and it tells me to get facebook to log in. Or twitter or whatever their social media thing is. Every day.

You guys sound like my grandma. Sheesh.

Or the people that said the same thing about cell phones 10 years ago.

Cell phones are pretty much the same; the only difference is that you can turn them off and they have wonderful apps now. But it's the same ****ing thing. People keep their cell phones on, interrupt conversations they're already having to respond to calls and texts because they think every call for them is super-important and can't wait. I bet today you will be in the middle of a conversation, their phone will ring, they'll answer it and talk to someone else. We've gotten used to it, but it's rude. There's wonderful things to phones too, don't get me wrong, but they're rude.

I like Twitter and Facebook for it's chaotic reasons and I'm narcissistic.

So long as you're willing to admit that.

The complaints that people don't get invited to things because their friends didn't want them there bad enough to track them down with an email or whatever are hilarious.

I do not understand this attitude. You're having a party/event/whatever. You have a friend whom you want to invite. It is now a chore to actually go through the pains of calling/texting their phone or e-mailing them? This is a sick attitude. You don't care who shows up, just so long as enough people do. Friends are not a commodity. When I want to do something with my friends, I call them up (or text or e-mail) because I want to talk to them and see them. It's not effort on my part. I've gone over to people's dos and asked, "Who's coming?" and their response is, "Dunno. Put it on facebook."

Does no one else get how sick this is? You put on an event because you are lonely and want company or want to share something with other people, but you are so distant from everyone you know that it doesn't matter who's there as long as someone shows up? We are more connected than before, but our relationships are less substantive than before.

If you weren't invited to a wedding because the invitations were facebook-only then those people are tacky and cheap and you wouldn't have wanted to go anyway.

Also, I agree with Planet-Man, for the most part, though I don't think facebook is some kind of social necessity and I totally understand why people don't give a ****. That being said, people who don't want a facebook should stop whining defiantly about how terrible it is and people who like facebook should stop pestering those who don't want one. Basically, everyone should shut up forever.

Ironically, this is the age where a lot of the internet is devoted to people having their own page somewhere and just pouring out whatever craziness goes on in their minds. Like this thread. I agree. People should shut up more. This is actually one of the nice ideas behind twitter. Limiting it to 240 characters keeps it succinct. But it is also like the bite-size cookie. You have them so you eat less, end the craving, and are healthier. But in actuality, because they're bite-size you have ten times more than you would otherwise. Twitter's the same. You make short posts in order to make your point, but then you make four hundred a day about your toiletry habits.

See the problem with that is the internet has no tone of voice. I see "HA!" or "Ha ha" I automatically assume it's sarcasm. That is why I use LOL or if available a laughing smiley like so :lol:

But you should know your friend well enough to know if he's being sarcastic or not. Why has this become an alien concept?

This is true, about Twitter. It's very useful, and in a lot of Journalism classes at my school it is a requirement that you have one. I think many of my friends who I've talked to who say Twitter is dumb and they will never get one -- and these are people who are on their Facebooks all the time -- will have one by the end of the year, if not next year.

Again, I'd like to point out what I wrote. Facebook, twitter, blogs, cell phones - these are wonderful devices and tools with many useful applications. I have no problem with someone on deviantArt using their journal to talk about themselves, for example, because the social networking is a tool to showcase your work or to create a community of like-minded people about a specific area of life (like this board). So twitter for journalists is of course, a wonderful thing. But social networking, the narcissitic pursuit of putting your personal life into the public realm, is rather sick. This is akin to being given the best hammer ever invented, and instead of using it to create chairs, tables, walls, or whatever, you just pick it up and start smashing it against every wall as you walk down the street, talking about yourself.

I love the technology. I love the idea. I love it when its used with purpose. But I cannot stand the reality TV "look at me" mentality it fosters.
 
Except that, yes, everyone does tell you to get one. I go to exchange contact detail with someone, they tell me to get facebook. I go to a website and it tells me to get facebook to log in. Or twitter or whatever their social media thing is. Every day.
Incorrect. That is not telling you to get one. It is an option of many to use the website.
 
I do not understand this attitude. You're having a party/event/whatever. You have a friend whom you want to invite. It is now a chore to actually go through the pains of calling/texting their phone or e-mailing them? This is a sick attitude. You don't care who shows up, just so long as enough people do. Friends are not a commodity. When I want to do something with my friends, I call them up (or text or e-mail) because I want to talk to them and see them. It's not effort on my part. I've gone over to people's dos and asked, "Who's coming?" and their response is, "Dunno. Put it on facebook."

Does no one else get how sick this is? You put on an event because you are lonely and want company or want to share something with other people, but you are so distant from everyone you know that it doesn't matter who's there as long as someone shows up? We are more connected than before, but our relationships are less substantive than before.

On the notion that, in the age of Facebook, people have gone insane and don't care who comes to their events anymore, just how many people come: This is just absurd to me. Do you actually have any evidence for this? Do you know anybody who would actually rather have 200 randomers click "Attend" and come to their house instead of their 6 best friends? All I can say is that I, personally, have absolutely never seen this attitude from anyone. Yes, some people invite their entire friends list and beyond to every shindig they have, but the idea that they do that instead of focusing on the handful of people they specifically want to come is, in my experience, 100% untrue.

On the notion that you, Houde, and anyone else are being excluded from things because you don't have/use Facebook and people have forgotten about/grown too impatient for all other forms of communication: Facebook is, by far, my first and best line of communication with the outside world. I use it as the primary way of arranging random hangouts, events and twice for full parties. Despite this, I also have friends who either don't have Facebook or don't use it often enough to be reliable, and never once have I or anybody I know excluded them because we couldn't be bothered to call/text/email them.

Likewise, even when I've been invited to something on Facebook by someone else who uses Facebook, I almost always get an additional text/call from them as the day of the event to confirm I'm coming or ask when, and treat my other FB friends the same way because, obviously, we want each other there and you are correct about how easy it still is to pick up the phone.

So basically, I find all this "hilarious"(not really) because I've seen about as much evidence for fancy new methods of communication actually controlling peoples' popularity as I've seen for fancy new weather satellites actually controlling the weather. Twitter, Facebook, email, cellphone or landline, people invite who they want to see, same as it ever was.

And if people crazy enough to care more about their public Attendee count or not using anything other than websites to invite people to things, no matter who this excludes, actually do exist(my count, to date, is nil), well, why do you want to hang out with them anyway?
 

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