Teri Silver: Commen-"Teri"

Urging all of my friends to, as often as possible, use proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, verbiage, etc. instead of jargon & abbreviations when posting messages on the Internet.  It's important that our younger viewers learn the reality and not the fantasy.  With so many children online these days we must teach the lessons outside of the schoolyard.  Literacy starts here!

On Facebook, for instance, it is distressing to me to read so many messages that I cannot understand, because of the way those messages are written.  Yes, of course ...  slang, Internet jargon, shortcuts ... they're all part of the package.  That's fine if it were just adults using it but it's not good practice for children who are learning to read and write.  For that matter, it's not good practice for adults to use too many "cheats" when writing our English language because we tend to forget how to do it correctly! (And yes, I say "we" here ... :)))

So, what am I saying here?  Let's not lose our ability to speak and write properly.  Forget the spellchecker, instead, keep a dictionary handy.  Don't encourage poor writing habits when posting messages on the Internet, especially to children who will pick up these bad habits and confuse them with "Internet-speak." 

We can all use Internet jargon/shortcuts and still get our collective point across, but if u w8 2 long 2 b ur child's teacher ... any child ...  then, in the long run, we'll all be in trouble (especially when "your" is substituted for "you're" and punctuation just gets eliminated, period.  Personal pet peeve here ... )

Literacy starts here and now!

Teri Silver