-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
why do ppl catch feelings over slang?
- Thread starter Remark
- Start date
- Status
SteveWinwood
Member
are you classist and racist hmmm?
kitchenmotors
Banned
You need to learn how to capitalize. IGNORED.
That's racist.
The One Who Knocks
Member
I have a few issues with slang, and while some small uses in isolation such as "tryna", as referred to in the original post, aren't too bothersome, any widespread use is quite an issue for me.
The primary issue with slang for me is the difficulty I have in reading it. When slang is used, I'm left trying to decipher what is actually trying to be said, what level of sincerity is in the use, and what the context is meant to be, something that's primarily an issue when an individual begins removing words. Depending upon the difficulty I have trying to parse what is actually trying to be said, it's a very real possibility that I will simply skip past your post, because it simply isn't worth the effort in trying to read it when there are many other posts in the thread, and the vast majority of these are written in proper (or at least more readable) English. I am a native English speaker, but on the internet you're not communicating solely with those fluent in English, you're communicating with a worldwide audience. For readers whose second, third, or fourth langauge is English, and they are not fluent in the language, using slang serves as a barrier in reading text at their standard pace. While learning French, slang was an element that had only briefly been touched on, and the French examination largely avoided it, yet in trying to read more informal writing than I was used to I greatly struggled due to the large presence of slang, or the dropping of certain words as individuals may do in speech (even something as simply as "J'ai pas" instead of "Je n'ai pas" made it slightly more difficult to understand what was being said, and it took longer than it otherwise would to realise that "ne" was simply being dropped, and that there wasn't some alternative meaning I was unaware of). Based upon my experience with French (and Irish, but that's a completely different issue as I was terrible in that to begin with), I avoid slang so that individuals who may be in the same position I was, only with English instead of French, can more easily understand my writing. Perhaps you have something earth-shattering to say, perhaps the information contained in the post could otherwise be the most eloquently written post in the forum's history; it more than likely is not the case so by making it difficult to read people may just move on, or, alternatively misinterpret you in which case you're now going to get into a pointless conversation about what you actually meant, something that could have been avoided if you just took ever-so-slightly more time to type properly in your original post.
The other issue I have is that, in most circumstances, it really does not take considerably more time to properly type out what you're actually trying to say (unless you're on a phone where you have to press the button "one" twice to type "b", but even then they have predictive text) and as egregious usage can become the focus of the conversation, can detract from the respondent's opinion of you, can lead to a misportrayal of what you're actually trying to say, and can make it time-consuming for the reader to actually understand your post, it can come across as quite rude and lazy to me to use it. When the majority of readers take the time to post properly, your slang comes across rather badly. While there may be other circumstances affecting your typing speed, be it a disability, the item that you're using to type your message, or something else, and you may feel you're saving time by typing in such a manner, if the majority of people pass over your post due to how you've written it, or it substantially detracts from the post itself, it was a waste of time to post in the first place. This is more anecdotal (but perhaps applicable to others), but I'm willing to give time, and effort, to respond to a person who, regardless of how outlandish what they say is or how much it may resemble a joke/'trolling', shows respect (which is to say, somebody who refrains from insulting others) but I don't see why it is worth giving up time to respond substantially if the other individual cannot even take the time to word their request; this thread is admittedly an exception but this is more due to the racial element that has been continually cited, something that I don't quite understand (which is to say that I'm aware that, perhaps, there could be a racial element in some instances, but I'm not so sure I'd agree with the notion that it's a dominant issue) and I'm hoping somebody could clarify assuming it's not a joke, than the request in the original post (I don't know what 'to catch feelings' means but I assume it's something like 'to become angry').
Another element that cannot avoid being considered is that it greatly obfuscates the register of the post. Making a post rather informal is something that could be perfectly fine in a community thread where there is a relatively consistent group of posters, but in threads with a far more diverse readership this comes across as if the individual has missed the appropriacy as while it may be nice to think of NeoGAF as a nice cosy forum with some nice members, it's important to recognise that the forums are viewed by far more than simply the members, and the informal tone seems to ignore these viewers. It's hard to tell if you're being purposely facetious in how you're typing, if you're trying to parody somebody, or if you're actually serious; given that the forum is so large that I've never seen you post before (or it's possible I have but that I've forgotten due to how many members there are) it's near-impossible to tell without having to go root through your post history to see if that's how you actually type. Similarly, it's hard to tell if you're trying to be insulting or not. 'Brah'/'Bro' is something that I must confess I find somewhat bothersome (I expect a few 'take it easy bruh' in response to this post due to that); I am not your 'brah'/'bro'/'brudr', I've no idea who you are and the term is completely inappropriate due to how incredibly informal it is in this context.
The context of slang is also something that needs to be considered. In a post regarding climate change, social issues, politics, or any serious matter, the usage of slang can seriously detract from your credibility. Now, admittedly it is fallacious to believe that the usage of slang is indicative of the quality of a person's argument/intelligence, but it still reflects poorly, and can lead to people not taking your post seriously and simply striving past it. Worse, it can make people think you're simply mocking the topic or trying to be comedic (this is related to the difficulty it brings in determining register of the post admittedly) when you are not. It may encourage people to be more dismissive of your opinion due to how you post (if they don't take you seriously as a result of it) and make them somewhat biased in trying to prove you wrong due to connotations that the use of slang (correct, or incorrect, in relation to inteligence, laziness, respect, etc.) may indicate, and that's a poor way to try and start a conversation.
As I've noted, I'm not really sure if this is an appropriate response to why people may 'catch feels' about slang, as I'm not really sure what the term means, but I hope it somewhat reflects the question. I'm not trying to say that everybody should post with perfect grammar, perfect punctuation, and perfect spelling in every single post, but overuse of slang can be quite a severe annoyance for me.
While I'm in agreement, I think the essence of the original post is more in relation to typing how you would speak (in English) rather than typing in proper written English.
The primary issue with slang for me is the difficulty I have in reading it. When slang is used, I'm left trying to decipher what is actually trying to be said, what level of sincerity is in the use, and what the context is meant to be, something that's primarily an issue when an individual begins removing words. Depending upon the difficulty I have trying to parse what is actually trying to be said, it's a very real possibility that I will simply skip past your post, because it simply isn't worth the effort in trying to read it when there are many other posts in the thread, and the vast majority of these are written in proper (or at least more readable) English. I am a native English speaker, but on the internet you're not communicating solely with those fluent in English, you're communicating with a worldwide audience. For readers whose second, third, or fourth langauge is English, and they are not fluent in the language, using slang serves as a barrier in reading text at their standard pace. While learning French, slang was an element that had only briefly been touched on, and the French examination largely avoided it, yet in trying to read more informal writing than I was used to I greatly struggled due to the large presence of slang, or the dropping of certain words as individuals may do in speech (even something as simply as "J'ai pas" instead of "Je n'ai pas" made it slightly more difficult to understand what was being said, and it took longer than it otherwise would to realise that "ne" was simply being dropped, and that there wasn't some alternative meaning I was unaware of). Based upon my experience with French (and Irish, but that's a completely different issue as I was terrible in that to begin with), I avoid slang so that individuals who may be in the same position I was, only with English instead of French, can more easily understand my writing. Perhaps you have something earth-shattering to say, perhaps the information contained in the post could otherwise be the most eloquently written post in the forum's history; it more than likely is not the case so by making it difficult to read people may just move on, or, alternatively misinterpret you in which case you're now going to get into a pointless conversation about what you actually meant, something that could have been avoided if you just took ever-so-slightly more time to type properly in your original post.
The other issue I have is that, in most circumstances, it really does not take considerably more time to properly type out what you're actually trying to say (unless you're on a phone where you have to press the button "one" twice to type "b", but even then they have predictive text) and as egregious usage can become the focus of the conversation, can detract from the respondent's opinion of you, can lead to a misportrayal of what you're actually trying to say, and can make it time-consuming for the reader to actually understand your post, it can come across as quite rude and lazy to me to use it. When the majority of readers take the time to post properly, your slang comes across rather badly. While there may be other circumstances affecting your typing speed, be it a disability, the item that you're using to type your message, or something else, and you may feel you're saving time by typing in such a manner, if the majority of people pass over your post due to how you've written it, or it substantially detracts from the post itself, it was a waste of time to post in the first place. This is more anecdotal (but perhaps applicable to others), but I'm willing to give time, and effort, to respond to a person who, regardless of how outlandish what they say is or how much it may resemble a joke/'trolling', shows respect (which is to say, somebody who refrains from insulting others) but I don't see why it is worth giving up time to respond substantially if the other individual cannot even take the time to word their request; this thread is admittedly an exception but this is more due to the racial element that has been continually cited, something that I don't quite understand (which is to say that I'm aware that, perhaps, there could be a racial element in some instances, but I'm not so sure I'd agree with the notion that it's a dominant issue) and I'm hoping somebody could clarify assuming it's not a joke, than the request in the original post (I don't know what 'to catch feelings' means but I assume it's something like 'to become angry').
Another element that cannot avoid being considered is that it greatly obfuscates the register of the post. Making a post rather informal is something that could be perfectly fine in a community thread where there is a relatively consistent group of posters, but in threads with a far more diverse readership this comes across as if the individual has missed the appropriacy as while it may be nice to think of NeoGAF as a nice cosy forum with some nice members, it's important to recognise that the forums are viewed by far more than simply the members, and the informal tone seems to ignore these viewers. It's hard to tell if you're being purposely facetious in how you're typing, if you're trying to parody somebody, or if you're actually serious; given that the forum is so large that I've never seen you post before (or it's possible I have but that I've forgotten due to how many members there are) it's near-impossible to tell without having to go root through your post history to see if that's how you actually type. Similarly, it's hard to tell if you're trying to be insulting or not. 'Brah'/'Bro' is something that I must confess I find somewhat bothersome (I expect a few 'take it easy bruh' in response to this post due to that); I am not your 'brah'/'bro'/'brudr', I've no idea who you are and the term is completely inappropriate due to how incredibly informal it is in this context.
The context of slang is also something that needs to be considered. In a post regarding climate change, social issues, politics, or any serious matter, the usage of slang can seriously detract from your credibility. Now, admittedly it is fallacious to believe that the usage of slang is indicative of the quality of a person's argument/intelligence, but it still reflects poorly, and can lead to people not taking your post seriously and simply striving past it. Worse, it can make people think you're simply mocking the topic or trying to be comedic (this is related to the difficulty it brings in determining register of the post admittedly) when you are not. It may encourage people to be more dismissive of your opinion due to how you post (if they don't take you seriously as a result of it) and make them somewhat biased in trying to prove you wrong due to connotations that the use of slang (correct, or incorrect, in relation to inteligence, laziness, respect, etc.) may indicate, and that's a poor way to try and start a conversation.
As I've noted, I'm not really sure if this is an appropriate response to why people may 'catch feels' about slang, as I'm not really sure what the term means, but I hope it somewhat reflects the question. I'm not trying to say that everybody should post with perfect grammar, perfect punctuation, and perfect spelling in every single post, but overuse of slang can be quite a severe annoyance for me.
While I'm in agreement, I think the essence of the original post is more in relation to typing how you would speak (in English) rather than typing in proper written English.
Should have worn a comdom.
All that needs to be said.
OriginalThinking
Member
Quite the read, but well worth it. Mirrors my thoughts perfectly.
sixteen-bit
Member
Pretty informal forum. Slang doesn't bother me.
I feel like some of you are really sheltered =
We use slang all the time, "face palm" anyone!? My Mum wouldn't know WTF that means, but replace that with "mush" and ve would know exactly what your trying to say. Personally "face palm" makes little sense to me, it's like a simpleton coined this in effort to describe the action, mush or mushed is way more fitting.
Don't be so uppity about things you don't understand GAF
We use slang all the time, "face palm" anyone!? My Mum wouldn't know WTF that means, but replace that with "mush" and ve would know exactly what your trying to say. Personally "face palm" makes little sense to me, it's like a simpleton coined this in effort to describe the action, mush or mushed is way more fitting.
Don't be so uppity about things you don't understand GAF
Mush used to be a person in the UK, "Alright mush", God knows what it's to do with facepalms.
As for the subject of the thread, tryna is just one ugly looking word. It's like if the forum was filled with "U wot m8" in not an ironic way, I would want to stab my eyes out.
As for the subject of the thread, tryna is just one ugly looking word. It's like if the forum was filled with "U wot m8" in not an ironic way, I would want to stab my eyes out.
impetuous_silly
Member
OP, why you catchin' feelins of people catchin feelins?
*did I do that right?
*did I do that right?
Seraphis Cain
bad gameplay lol
That's the thing. "Face palm" is simple, yes, but that allows the greatest number of people to easily understand it, because it clearly and simply describes an action. "Mush" or "mushed" is a regional slang that only people from a specific place understand. And as the internet is very much a multicultural place, the simplest, easiest to understand term is always the preferable one.
Do you realise that the same issues you may be having deciphering some of the language you mention is probably easier than reading giant walls of text that aren't broken up into more managable chunks?
The recent use of the word "tho" really bothers me. Why is it tacked onto the end of every sentence? "Dat ass tho." "Dat ass in spite of the fact that?" Inspite of the fact that what? It makes no sense.
The One Who Knocks
Member
I realise that one point is one paragraph, and that breaking it up 'into more manageable chunks' would be doing so arbitrarily while also diluting the relevance of certain sentences, yes. I could understand your complaint if no paragraphs were used at all, but that's hardly the case, nor is it a 'giant wall of text' by any means with only around five thousand five hundred words in total. EDIT: I mean, if you wish to argue for a different form of seperation, by all means, please do so and I will listen, but if you just want to make a post indicating that you don't like to read a lot, well, I'm not really sure what more can be done to appease this satisfaction.
Did you really just say TLDR? That won't go down well.
nah m8 it b wel sik if we tlk lik dis m8 ne1 disrspekt u il bash ther fookin hed in m8.
SteveWinwood
Member
it is
theyre called paragraphs and theyre very managable for anyone with a 3rd grade reading level
"Y u type so much lol!"
Wickerbasket
Member
Can you explain what you found wrong with his post? He used paragraphs properly and I didn't have any issue reading it.
I understand that. The post felt like reading an essay. It was very eloquent, but I feel that it could be seen as similarly tiring to read as trying to figure out slang. My point would be that people are free to express themselves in the way they write. I do agree that it may change the way people percieve the writer, but I would imagine they are aware of how they may be percieved.
EDIT: My post wasn't meant to be insulting the way your post was written. It was more of a devil's advocate kind of comment that I can see probably came off badly. Believe it or not I work as a medical secretary, and large blocks off text may sometimes be ignored by staff involved in the NHS and it's easier digest text that gets to the point.
If you can express the same thoughts with 1/10 of the words, you're not doing it right.
Wickerbasket
Member
I believe the use of slang is lazy and disrespectful to the reader.
Writing a long post to describe your feelings on a subject is pretty much the opposite of being lazy and disrespectful.
You might have had a point if there was anything in his post that wasn't worth typing out, but it was a very well thought out post.
What you're complaining about is having to read a long post.
Did you read his post? I'd be very impressed if you could take it down to 1/10 of the words and keep the same tone and meaning.
Zoe
Member
If you're on your phone, auto-correct is faster than "tryna".
SteveWinwood
Member
I think to fully express himself completely and competently he used a correct amount of words.
Any less and it would have been a lot more open to different interpretations instead of what he actually meant.
Hmm maybe. I guess I've typed tryna enough in texts that it accepts it as a word. When I type 'try', it'll suggest 'trying' and then 'to' afterwards. Same amount of taps on my screen. So I guess it would just be preference at that point.
I heard a dj on the radio say that yesterday and I had no idea what it meant lol.
I did read it. If you think it's not wordy, than you are fooling yourself. I was exaggerating with 1/10, but the point remains the same.
Is it harder to figure out what "catch feelings" means? Or reading through a super long post? You have to cater to your audience. It's a message board, most don't want to read an essay. So by going into that amount of detail you are losing your message.
"Throwing shade" hasn't run its course. It has existed as slang since the 80s for crying out loud.
Your discovery of a thing does not represent the birth of that thing.
A lot of attempts at elitism in this thread. "Slang" is one of the core components by which language evolves and regional/cultural distinctions form. And I think it's funny that urban slang seems to be largely on trial here, and not the shit-ton of what I would call corny slang that makes up a lot of the English language.
To try and explain myself further, rather than to be seen as just complaining of the volume of text. Long sentances with several commas listing things is a bit of a pet hate of mine. If you are making a list it's probably easier to just bullet point if you're asking to make things easier to read (like you're essentially asking in the curbing of the use of slang).
His post was well-written, well thought-out, and by your own admission eloquent. There is nothing wrong with it. He showed a great deal of respect to other posters by putting in effort into being precise and masterful when expressing his thoughts. That's much better than taking a diarrhea shit of dumb slang words all over the board.
Nah man, too many commas, TLDR.
The One Who Knocks
Member
From this aspect (and I'd rather keep it generalised towards long posts than the one I've specifically written so that it's in keeping with the topic about a variety of commuication styles rather than a certain type in particular) I can agree that long posts can raise certain issues that the use of slang also raise, primarily that it may lead to people overlooking the post due to the time-consuming nature of reading something somewhat substantial, but my diagreement would reside in that these aren't mutually exclusive. There are positive and negative aspects of writing a long post certainly (primarily in relation to how it can be time-consuming to read, particularly with numerous other shorter posts available), but you can simultaneously use slang, or not, to write it. If a long post is written in slang, you have an interaction between the positive and negative aspects of a long post, and the positives (more so if you're purposely trying to be informal) and negatives of using slang, and, therefore, I would think they're two seperate issues and not very comparable.
EDIT: In saying that, I can agree that incorrect punctuation (and admittedly I do use a huge amount of parenthetical elements which isn't the best for clarity) is an issue which very much overlaps with many of the aspects noted I had noted previously; this was mainly as a result of 'slang' being used as more of a catch-all (as indicated by the reply to the quoted post) for purposely poor writing for the sake of shortening the length of time it takes to write a post and resemble speech admittedly.
EDIT 2: Regarding people knowing what it portrays, perhaps, but the original poster has asked why people "catch feelings" and therefore I responded as to why people "catch feelings". Whether or not people know, that's what the actual question what.
Wickerbasket
Member
Being wordy implies that those words weren't needed to express his point.
I feel the amount of words he used expressed his message well and concisely, meanwhile, you feel he used too many words. We're at an impasse.
Either way, giving your audience more to read is still better than being disrespectful to your reading audience through using slang.
SteveWinwood
Member
this is gaf
if you feel its too wordy there are lots of other message boards for you
one of things i enjoy about it are the well thought out enlightening posts
Team Jones
Member
Slang in speech; OK.
Slang by abbreviations due to limitations; OK.
Slang in writing; NOT OK.
Slang when speaking is mostly due to dialect, so that's fine.
Abbreviation Slang is mostly due to limitations, so that's fine.
Slang in writing; ???
Slang by abbreviations due to limitations; OK.
Slang in writing; NOT OK.
Slang when speaking is mostly due to dialect, so that's fine.
Abbreviation Slang is mostly due to limitations, so that's fine.
Slang in writing; ???
Not sure why I'm arguing, a lot of slang annoys me too.. Hmmm. Is it really disrespectful to use slang?
Wickerbasket
Member
If someone isn't willing to communicate to the best of their ability when trying to express a point, then why should anyone give their own time to read it?
AdventureMike
Member
This is just it though. This is the inherent problem of the attitude being used by the OP and the guy when saying we need to figure out what he's saying when he types "Tryna".
They don't want to have to learn to type longer words or type faster/correctly. They want to type out quickly without having to burden themselves to learn to type better. When approached by others saying that they should maybe write less slang, they essentially said "Fuck yall, Im going to type how I want." They need to write for their audience and their audience includes individuals outside of their neighborhood/culture/region. Shifting the burden onto your readers to figure out what you are attempting to convey is rude and selfish.
CrazyDogg77
Member
I don't know fam
I admit that some slang can be awkward to write out because the English language doesn't have suitable methods to represent a lot of slang terms. But the very idea of writing slang. Especially since a lot of slang is just taking standard words and repurposing them. Throwing shade, for example. That woman is a stone-cold fox is another.
Oh really?
Because NeoGAF is pretty a pretty forum that's visited by people from all over the world and house dozens of sub-communities. I think you're jumping the gun in your assertion that the typical poster has to (or does) communicate in a way that acknowledges the entire board as their audience.
jackissocool
Member
People think there is a right way to speak and a wrong way to speak. They are wrong. Ask any linguist and they'll tell you language evolves and changes but always maintains its capacity to communicate. Any rules are just handed down by ancient, arbitrary authority figures who wanted everyone to be just like them.
- Status