Posted by Dave Thewlis on April 04, 2000 at 12:57:43 from slip-32-100-238-102.ca.us.prserv.net:
In Reply to: Re: Respect for their elders posted by Adam Quinan on April 04, 2000 at 12:01:56:
I find myself on both sides of the discussion. I strongly suspect that
the reason that youngsters don't bother with capitalization or even
much more in the way of punctuation is that they are primarily concerned
with content rather than form and impatient of the latter. Adding to that
schools aren't doing much about teaching spelling, grammar and punctuation
any more so the younger people that do it have learned largely by reading
(the same can be said for the ability to write).
For people who have learned to read typing without punctuation or particular
attention to spelling, the point seems irrelevant -- the content is there either
way and they can grasp it either way. For those of us who grew up with regular
spelling and punctuation, and those who read a lot such that we are very familiar
with "proper" (whatever that is) usage versus improper usage, it is a distraction
and makes it very hard to read. All caps is another such usage; it is considered
"shouting". What I myself have little patience with is people who have adopted the
styleless stream mode of typing even though they know better; then it seems laziness
or desire to be thought uptodate/cool/hip/etc. and less simply the way that one
uses the computer these days.
And having said all of that, I would have to agree that given the choice I'd rather
see something than nothing, but would suggest to those who use the styleless stream
mode that while it works well with contemporaries, it may work less well with old
fogies in their 30s and above, for whom it appears simply wrong and is a distraction.
Which is a very long-winded way of saying that to any audience, the presentation
conditions the acceptance of the content.