A concern I have, and my Lenton fast

This is not meant to be a rant or start a rant, please understand. And I know I am not in a position to judge people simply because the way the school system is set up played to my strengths and ability to learn, therefore placing me at an (unfair?) advantage over some others in certain areas. I'm just concerned, that's all, about the inability(?) of many individuals to effectively express themselves in writing.

I don't mean those who choose to "simplify" their writing style to be concise or trendy; I am prone to emoticons and "lol"ing myself (though I can't bring myself to sacrifice things like proper capitalization for the sake of expediency). But it is SHOCKING to me the number of Facebook posts I have seen that reflect a very poor grasp of the basics of the English language. And I'm not just talking about an obvious haste and lack of editing that can lead to typos and left out words, or the mixing up of some of the particulars, like whether a period is placed inside or outside the bracket; I'm guilty of that, too, on occasion. ( And, in fact, when I was just spelling "occasion" I spelled it wrong (added an extra "s") and was corrected by the built-in spellchecker. Maybe I should be harder on myself for that, because most certainly I've misspelled (misspelled that word, too) that word before and perhaps I've become a little lazy relying on spellcheck to catch my little "oops" es.) and while I think those things are important, it's not keeping me up at night. I'm talking about sentences and words and paragraphs being so mangled that they can, at times, be barely recognizable as English.

I just wonder if a few decades ago people would have been too embarrassed to express themselves in writing if their knowledge only allowed them to do so at the level that is ignored or tolerated or even flaunted today. I don't begrudge people the right to express themselves, and I understand that since so much of our lives are now focused on the written word because of technology, it's inevitable that those that don't excel in that area would still need to put themselves out there in print. But what it reveals about where society is going (or maybe has always been but it just hasn't been as evident 'til now) is a concern.

Speaking as a youth worker who spends far too much time trying to "decode" messages from my kids, I think it's a VALID concern. These kids SHOULD know how to write at a reasonable level - they SHOULD have been given the tools. I don't expect them to become journalists or novelists, but they SHOULD be able to construct a sentence and spell in ways that are at least PHONETICALLY sound, if not always 100% correct... shouldn't they? Shouldn't they know the difference between "here" and "hear"? Shouldn't they know how to use a comma or a semi-colon? Shouldn't they know that most words are NOT spelled with a backslash?

So where do we lay the blame, so that reform can begin? The school system? The Internet? The parents? The kids? I don't know. I'm just concerned. Generations from now, will people even be able to read "correctly" written documents? Or will the language have so changed that they only understand the "mess" that plagues our message boards today?

And now, on to Lent. I have decided to fast from "Extras" and "Excesses" this season. I'm still fleshing out exactly what that will entail, but essentially I'm going to not eat out when I COULD eat at home, and not pay extra for three-ply when 2-ply will work just as good. And I'm going to TRY to apply that to media as well - I can watch TV when there's something on I'm planning to see (ex. House), but I want to stop just having the TV on for something to do. And go on Facebook to send and receive messages, but not waste time randomly looking people up. We'll see how it goes.

I'm starting Lent a little late, I know, but I actually forgot about it until I was reminded by Liz's blog (thanks, Liz!). Are you observing Lent this year? And if so, what are you giving up?