paragraphs, are they gone?

for example,

http://able2know.org/topic/162824-1#post-4384864

that is a literate person playing.

Only some of the endless paragraphs are literate, or even decipherable.

but that last one is literate.

Gaming.

What!? With a warning like that, you think I looked?

We don't know I'm right, she sniffs. But how stupid can people be.

while person spelling stuff right.

There have been MUCH worse posted here.

I attribute it to age and texting.

We are just now reaping the second generation of kids who were never required to practice handwriting and learn spelling.

Agree. I think people don't consider Internet posts in the same way they think of letters or memos. They dash them off without thought to grammar, spelling or format.

I skip 'em. Worse than all caps, IMNSHO. IYKWIMAITYD.

Is this a bad thing, E? I don't see internet posts as particularly formal.

Kids learn to write by writing. The more they write they more they become proficient at writing.

There have always been folks predicting the imminent demise of language, including writing and spelling, in fact, it's almost a knee jerk reaction for a big part of the population.

Yet we see that language and writing has survived even in the USA despite the horrendous teachings of Stunk & White and their fledglings.

Everyone writes and speaks without thought to grammar in the same way that everyone breathes without thought to breathing or everyone walks without thought to the mechanics of walking.

I don't know if they are gone or not, Osso . . . do you remember where you had them last?

I have been amused in recent years by online news stories, where each sentence, it seems, stands alone as a separate paragraph.

I am extremely prejudiced against this lazy style of online writing. I already am a slow reader and seeing this tonnage of unbroken text will have me ignoring the entire post. Once and awhile I'll make an effort to read it but I tend to give up a couple of sentences in as those people who ignore the visual and grammar necessity of paragraphs tend just to ramble and ramble on without a coherent break between sentences and ideas.

There is nothing "grammatical" about paragraphs, Tsar. They are simply a stylistic feature.

You mean, careless writing reflects careless thinking? You could be right.

My goodness, it is rather stressful reading that. So, I quit. If one sentence doesn't lead me to read the next, why bother?

Aidan and Punkey's attention span is obviously longer than yours, Pemerson, not to mention djjd's.

Oh, woe is to me. Guess I"ll go back to GO, won't get to collect $200. Low attention span, huh? What a sin.

Really, JTT.

No, really, Pemerson. That's how kids write. If you had taken the time to read it, you'd have found [from what was presented] a nice, thoughtful 17 year old who needs some time to learn what we all needed to learn.

Writing ain't like speech. It don't come natural. It has to be larned and everyone needs time to larn it.

It can be (a bad thing). The purpose of writing and speaking is to communicate. If poor grammar causes the reader (listener) to focus more on how you say something than what you say, then it is a detriment to you getting your point across. Errors that don't interrupt the flow don't really matter to me. Most people speak without regard to grammar, but they are close enough to correct that it doesn't matter. They are getting the point across effectively. The occasional paragraph break often makes your post clearer at very little cost.