Modern Communication

I am certainly getting old. From writing hex code, deciphering EBCDIC and ASCII
almost in my head - I find myself struggling with this blog editor interface and newfangled bits like HTML email.

Either I'm old, or the design of such interfaces is less than efficient.

The newest thing appears we're all so lazied with Instant messaging, our attention buffers have been reduced to a few bytes, unable to process any written communication longer than "howz u?".

Those of us who's elders laboriously tarried to pound proper use of the Queen's good English (and other sundry variants) into the fabric of our being and habit appeared to have done well. I attempt to be a good example by writing in complete, grammatically correct (I always felt better reading that Hemmingway also struggled with English grammar), and correctly spelled English. (or German in my case).

The result is my writing is consistently, horridly misunderstood.

Who's in the wrong ? Of course, the readers.

Appearance is that this is simply a sign of the times, younger generation, faster moving technology, which more rapidly is having a greater impact on society, and us humans - how we live, and think.

It seems technical writing is a vanishing art - replaced with screenshots (can you search these yet ?) and instructional videos, which really don't lend themselves to communicating detail, like the electrical characteristics of a Hartley-Colpitts oscillator.

Customer surveys indicate us older folks want to talk to a human. Our children ? they'd rather use a web form, or a voice call menu to get things done.

I find myself knowing I need to flex to the environment around me, particularly when using any word with more than 2 syllables is achieving nothing but inefficiency and misunderstanding - it's all about being effective.

"Can U pls send the multi-thread 24 core CPU schematic? tx"

Then again, when I read a recent study which found that the average US congressperson reads and writes at an 8th grade level - are these geniuses "stooping" to communicate with the ill-educated masses... ?

I'd have never graduated high school with levels that poor. My gut instinct is to
try and use modern popular media to make it "uncool" to be illiterate. Continue to raise the bar, and motivate people to jump - to be effective at communication, not just brief.


It almost seems we're lowering the bar, because we're simply too unmotivated to jump...

Having worked in technology for the last 20-odd years - I suppose I'm partly to blame, now feeling like Oppenheimer and Einstein - having given an atomic bomb to kindergarteners.


With this atomic communication bomb, the next generation will be able to mis-communicate themselves into oblivion...

"Yes, we know the reactor is in meltdown, the plant is 30 years old, and I can't find the repair manual on Youtube!"