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Is it something in the water here in Seattle?? - Printable Version

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Is it something in the water here in Seattle?? - akCard - 02-28-2013

Not only has Richard Sherman recently been in a Twitter slap fight with Darelle Revis but now Doug Baldwin has gone a Twitter rant against the evils of consumerism, partisanship, and conformity.

Sherman: http://blog.seattlepi.com/football/2013/02/20/cornerbacks-richard-sherman-and-darrelle-revis-spar-on-twitter/

Baldwin: http://blog.seattlepi.com/football/2013/02/27/seahawks-wr-doug-baldwin-goes-off-on-anti-consumerism-twitter-rant/

Re: Is it something in the water here in Seattle?? - dabigv13 - 02-28-2013

Oof, some brutal spelling there Doug...perhaps that was the reason for Harbaugh's de-emphasis of Baldwin in the offense?

Re: Is it something in the water here in Seattle?? - OutsiderFan - 03-01-2013

You can't hold people to the standard of spelling correctly on Twitter and in text messages.  It's one of my pet peeves that text and Twitter language finds itself into emails and even message board posts.  It irks me, for example when someone type "ppl" for "people."

Anyway, to me, it's refreshing to see someone like Baldwin use his position of influence to impart his perspective on the world.  The average person in a corporate environment can't say such things and still have a job.  As long as Baldwin can catch a football and run fast, he has no such worries about being employed and voicing provocative opinions.  And if he manages his earnings well, he may always be able to be as outspoken as he wishes to be, and never have to conform.  It isn't easy for most people to be non-conformist.

Re: Is it something in the water here in Seattle?? - Kathy - 03-01-2013

(03-01-2013, 06:12 AM)OutsiderFan link Wrote:You can't hold people to the standard of spelling correctly on Twitter and in text messages.

I do.

Re: Is it something in the water here in Seattle?? - washingtonismoney - 03-01-2013

(03-01-2013, 07:47 AM)Kathy link Wrote:[quote author=OutsiderFan link=topic=7604.msg59465#msg59465 date=1362143522]
You can't hold people to the standard of spelling correctly on Twitter and in text messages.

I do.
[/quote]

Nah, OutsiderFan is correct. 140 characters means you have to trim here and there on occasion.

Besides, there's nothing holy about spelling and usage anyway; it's just a shared convention to make sure we're mutually comprehensible. Since people are perfectly understandable on Twitter, they usage conventions there are pretty much fine. There are different standards for different media, and I certainly wouldn't be writing "Nah" on a formal essay. Probably.

Re: Is it something in the water here in Seattle?? - yvonne - 03-01-2013

(03-01-2013, 06:12 AM)OutsiderFan link Wrote:You can't hold people to the standard of spelling correctly on Twitter and in text messages.  It's one of my pet peeves that text and Twitter language finds itself into emails and even message board posts.  It irks me, for example when someone type "ppl" for "people."

I would occasionally see the word you written as "U" in term papers. (Yes, students wrote term papers in the second person, but that's an entirely different and more difficult nut to crack.

Re: Is it something in the water here in Seattle?? - Bruce Wang - 03-01-2013

I do appreciate the culture of grammar and usage here.  Makes for a better reading experience.  The only message board on the Internet that I could imagine has better grammar is one devoted to English.

Re: Is it something in the water here in Seattle?? - dabigv13 - 03-01-2013

Hey I agree there's a different level of expectation on twitter, but using "boarder" instead of "border" is pretty egregious. And I wrote this post from my phone so it's possible.

Re: Is it something in the water here in Seattle?? - FarmBoy - 03-01-2013

Some misspellings/misuses I attribute to autocorrect by a mobile device that wasn't corrected in the heat of the moment. Twitter is an interesting forum because public figures can get themselves into such hot water for something posted there, but the nature of the communication is that it's done on the fly, without proofreading. Updates are supposed to be spontaneous and in the moment, but the fall out can be severe and permanent. I think users tend to forget, while they post alone in their bed, that on the other end of the phone are 100s or 1000s of listeners.

Still, kudos to Baldwin for using his platform as a pro athlete to talk about something he thinks is important. Too many athletes follow the Michael Jordan path of limiting their exposure to sensitive topics in order to maximize their wealth.

OT: I thought this story of Kluwe and Ayanbadejo filing an an amicus brief in support of same-sex marriage in California was pretty remarkable as well.

Re: Is it something in the water here in Seattle?? - Kathy - 03-01-2013

(03-01-2013, 08:27 AM)washingtonismoney link Wrote:Besides, there's nothing holy about spelling and usage anyway; it's just a shared convention to make sure we're mutually comprehensible.

And what is the purpose of communication if we aren't mutually comprehensible?


Re: Is it something in the water here in Seattle?? - stupac2 - 03-01-2013

(03-01-2013, 10:38 AM)Kathy link Wrote:And what is the purpose of communication if we aren't mutually comprehensible?
U cn b understud witoot gud spelin.

(For the most part I agree with you, but nothing in those tweets was hard to understand. It's not like anyone here has 100% typo-free conversations on phones (or even text), I probably send a few bad typos a day on my phone.)

Re: Is it something in the water here in Seattle?? - washingtonismoney - 03-01-2013

(03-01-2013, 10:38 AM)Kathy link Wrote:[quote author=washingtonismoney link=topic=7604.msg59470#msg59470 date=1362151642]
Besides, there's nothing holy about spelling and usage anyway; it's just a shared convention to make sure we're mutually comprehensible.

And what is the purpose of communication if we aren't mutually comprehensible?
[/quote]

Uh...there is none? I don't see how this changes my point at all. There has to be some shared conventions of spelling and usage; it's just that the exact form is arbitrary. Since Twitterese is typically perfectly mutually comprehensible, it's as good a usage/grammar standard as any.

Re: Is it something in the water here in Seattle?? - jayasena - 03-01-2013

(03-01-2013, 09:37 AM)dabigv link Wrote:Hey I agree there's a different level of expectation on twitter, but using "boarder" instead of "border" is pretty egregious. And I wrote this post from my phone so it's possible.

Sure, it's possible but it's an ROI issue. I make lots of typos and grammatical errors on FB, fora etc. but it's just not worth my while to proof-read every one of them. Formal documents of any sort are an entirely different matter, of course (e.g. second person and "U" in papers as mentioned above).

I'm not a big fan of texting/online abbreviations. They usually annoy me but I have a hard time convincing myself that "ppl" vs. "people" is materially different from "color" vs "colour". As long as the convention is known to the population in question, it seems like that should be good enough.

Re: Is it something in the water here in Seattle?? - Kathy - 03-01-2013

Quote:Since Twitterese is typically perfectly mutually comprehensible, it's as good a usage/grammar standard as any.


Blasphemy!

The problem is that Twitterspeak has a tendency to bleed over into other written communication. I see it every day in the work of interns. I'm in the business of making communication comprehensible. The standard at my publications is quite simple: correct spelling and usage as per Merriam-Webster Unabridged and AP Stylebook. Misspellings and incorrect usage look unprofessional; letting mistakes slide because "it's only Twitter" is the beginning of a bad habit.

And frankly, I fail to see any mutual comprehension gained from writing "boarders" when you mean "borders" or "remodel" when you mean "role model."


Mutually incomprehensible - Kathy - 03-01-2013

[Image: 2012-06-29-Autocorrect.jpg]

Re: Is it something in the water here in Seattle?? - stupac2 - 03-01-2013

(03-01-2013, 12:11 PM)Kathy link Wrote:And frankly, I fail to see any mutual comprehension gained from writing "boarders" when you mean "borders" or "remodel" when you mean "role model."

I don't think anyone is saying that anything is gained, just that nothing is really lost (except a small amount of time on the reader's part to figure it out, but in my case I didn't even notice "boarders" and got "remodel" instantly).

Besides, I think you can tell that, were he at a computer, those wouldn't have happened. And it's hard to catch EVERYTHING that your phone's insane autocorrect does. Expecting perfection from tweets is asinine, it's not formal communication.

Re: Is it something in the water here in Seattle?? - washingtonismoney - 03-01-2013

(03-01-2013, 12:11 PM)Kathy link Wrote:The problem is that Twitterspeak has a tendency to bleed over into other written communication.

OK, but that's not a problem with Twitter; that's a problem with your interns. Code switching is standard human behavior; we do it every day. It's not Twitter's fault that some people can't code switch terribly well.

Re: Is it something in the water here in Seattle?? - yvonne - 03-01-2013

Actually, code-switching is not normal human behavior; it's learned behavior. Some cultures require it more than others, and lower classes are less likely to know how to switch.

Ruby K. Payne has written some great stuff about register and hidden rules, and how they relate to cultural class. As a former teacher, I can definitely say that Twitterspeak does bleed over into other forms of written communication.

Re: - Extra Point - 03-01-2013

"Is it something in the water here in Seattle?"

This phenomena has something to do with the water, but not drinking water. Scientists have discovered that these odd behaviors which are most prevalent in Seattle are due to a combination of light deprivation and constant rain drizzel. What happens is that the indigenous population desperately want to see sunny skies, and attempt to convince themselves that walking in the drizzel will hasten fair weather. In the end they all end up with bad hair days and go at each others throats. If you go to a UW game in the rain, do not take an umbrella or rain coat. This is considered a brobdingnagian mistake in Seattle as it often leads to a Husky loss.

Re: - jayasena - 03-01-2013

(03-01-2013, 04:45 PM)Extra Point link Wrote:"Is it something in the water here in Seattle?"

This phenomena has something to do with the water, but not drinking water. Scientists have discovered that these odd behaviors which are most prevalent in Seattle are due to a combination of light deprivation and constant rain drizzel. What happens is that the indigenous population desperately want to see sunny skies, and attempt to convince themselves that walking in the drizzel will hasten fair weather. In the end they all end up with bad hair days and go at each others throats. If you go to a UW game in the rain, do not take an umbrella or rain coat. This is considered a brobdingnagian mistake in Seattle as it often leads to a Husky loss.

Given the timing, I'm inclined to think the events in this particular thread may be due to cumulative effects of multiple months of secondhand pot inhalation.