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Just as the title asks I've noticed a very sharp increase in people just straight up not comprehending what they're reading.

They'll read it and despite all the information being there, if it's even slightly out of line from the most straightforward sentence structure, they act like it's complete gibberish or indecipherable.

Has anyone else noticed this? Because honestly it's making me lose my fucking mind.

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[-] Kodemystic@lemmy.kodemystic.dev 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Our attention span is getting shorter as tech speeds up. Reminds me of Paul Virilio's "accident" hypothesis also now AI coming into play makes it even more clear.

[-] Roundcat@kbin.cafe 9 points 1 year ago

I get this all the time. Too often I'll even get someone trying to pick a fight with me, but if they actually read my post they would find I agree with them. Either that or they'll bring up a point I already addressed in my post.

There's a certain point where if I feel someone's not comprehending what I'm writing, continuing the conversation is a waste of my time. Even insulting them would require literacy on their end.

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[-] Donger@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

It's all the kids who missed two years of school because of COVID

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[-] CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I am honestly starting to wonder if there's some as-yet-unidentified environmental factor at play like how leaded gasoline caused so many problems in the latter half of the 20th Century.

But with regard to your specific gripe, pedantry is a hobby for some people.

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[-] wallybeavis@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

I've seen posts where I had to assume OP/the commenter wasn't a native English speaker, because of the sentence structure and odd choice of words. A multilingual platform such as lemmy, can sometimes leave you scratching your head. Since I don't speak a 2nd or 3rd language I'm always in awe of polyglots. I always try to offer an olive branch by assuming the fault was mine, and I wasn't clear enough in my wording.

however...

There are people (myself included) who will skim long form texts, rather than actually reading all of the words (thanks to every prof who's ever assigned busy work or HW on a school holiday). I can only speak for myself when I say, once I've skimmed something, if I get to the end and it doesn't add up, I go back and re-read it in its entirety. I have to imagine in a world of 6 billion people, there willl be some who don't choose to re-read the text, and choose outrage...also some people just think it's funny to be contrarian, there's not much you can do about that, other than smile and move along.

Tomorrow you will wake up, the world will be full of promise, and maybe a satisfying breakfast, and you won't even remember angry_commenter@lemmy.instance...they, on the other hand will wake up, and still be them...

[-] conciselyverbose@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago

I definitely see some clear "this is not their first language" posts, but I don't see a lot of overlap with the semi-literate stuff. They'll usually be pretty close with a missed idiom here or there, an uncommon word that's a slightly odd translation, or have some awkward habit on structure that's pretty consistent but just not quite right in English.

The "can't read" people are all over the place, without coherent structure, and just pull random interpretations out of thin air.

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[-] half_built_pyramids@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

The world and people have always sucked and been shit. It was never better. It'll never be better. From the moment I understood the weakness of flesh it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of AI doing all my thinking for me. I aspired to the purity of the blessed machine. Your kind cling to your fleshy memories of better times as if they are not decaying and failing you. One day the crude biomass you call a temple will wither and you will beg my kind to save you. But I am already saved for the techbro grift is immortal.

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[-] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Yes.

I firmly believe it has a lot to do with everything that used to be a well written article or website now being condensed into a video. I was never a good writer, but the only way for me to retain information is if it's in text.

[-] qwet@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

When I have to communicate to a group of people in an info-mailer at work, I list succinct bullet points now and high-lite the key words in them. Nobody reads anymore, it's a skim up until they see a trigger word and then it's over. People never read compl

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[-] waterbogan@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

This isnt new. Anyone who has been on a dating site or app in the last 20-30 years will have stories to tell.

The same applies with ads for almost anything. I can recall advertising a property to let in the early 2000's, the ad started with the line "Non-smokers wanted for non-smoking property" or something similar, and I repeated the non-smoking thing or variations of it over a dozen times within the ad. A couple turned up to look at it, both carrying cigarette packets, one actually smoking on arrival.....

[-] Default_Defect@midwest.social 7 points 1 year ago

Did you just call me illiterate?

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this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
773 points (100.0% liked)

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