I've come to decide that the internet isn't really a new invention. In fact, it's something that's been around for years and that people of all generations (except maybe the youngest) know about and have used.
The internet is a vacuum. A vacuum of time and productivity. A vacuum of almost everything intellectual.
On the internet, everyone is allowed to have a voice to do and say everything they want. Often, this voice is unintelligible rambling, and therein lies my point. Freedom of speech is amazing, it truly is. But I wonder when it was that we decided that the majority of people need not speak/write properly. Is it any wonder people are unemployed when the educational system is underfunded and people read m3$$@g3s instead of a completely written out e-mail? When everything is written in txt and other shorthands? Mind you, these things are great in certain places, but the problem is that people are lacking basic foundations before they begin to 'mess with the system.'
Take jazz for instance. It is improvisation, so, technically, anyone should be able to get up there and play. Well, take a step back. Anyone who can produce a sound on an instrument should be able to get up there and play, correct?
No. Not quite.
In fact, jazz musicians are some of the most technically skilled musicians there are. In my first improvisation class (other than the basics of improv I learned in high school), I was presented on the first day with a list of scales. You see, scales are what make the tonal system WORK. Without interval relationships between notes, we would not be able to tell major from minor from dorian or mixolydian. When you put certain interval patterns together, you make a scale.
A major scale goes like this (W=whole step, and H=half step):
WWHWWWH. EVERY major scale follows this pattern. It is these relationships that make that scale identifiable among all the sounds happening. The scales are the FOUNDATION of playing music, but especially jazz.
Most musicians that are classically trained can play the major scales and three forms of minor scales for you at the drop of a hat, and then play arpeggios up and down and around you. But jazz musicians spend HOURS upon HOURS a day perfecting not just majors and minors and the respective arpeggios, but they learn all the modal scales, and then dominant seventh chords, inverted arpeggios, and chordal inversions. Behind every jazz player is an arsenal of theory knowledge. All of this sits in their head until they see the shorthand on the sheet that says Gmaj7 and they play the notes that fit.
You see, they don't just get up there and make things up. They know their foundations before they do anything else.
But what I see more and more as people keep writing and posting and making videos and tweeting is not the convenience of shorthand in a needed situation. I see legitimate ignorance to the fact that there is a world out there that is expecting a certain sense of decorum from those entering the work-force. In some jobs you may not have to have any social interaction, but that is the rarity. And let me tell you, your boss is going to be able to expect for you to write a report or give a statement at some point in your career.
Before people start learning shorthand or playing with txt, they should learn proper English and maybe someday they will actually get a job. But until they get out of the internet frame of mind, they will be stuck.
Our system is backwards. The foundations are what is coming second or third. The foundation is ignored for the ease of a cell phone.
TXT will not pay your bills, but proper English might help you land that job you need.
Just sayin'.
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