Alligator Guitar

If I didn't have Internet, I would have no social life because I would never have built the confidence talking to others that I gained online. I agree that the majority of those that write badly in forums and messages boards would never have written as much as they do now without Internet access. This anwsers the question regarding rudeness in public that was discussed a week or so ago.

Is the world more intolerant to each other, or are we just connected more for debate to become more heated and seen by everyone else? Nothing has changed, it's just that awareness has increased greatly.

The internet only encourages literacy. Whether it's spelled right or not, language is language and you have to be able to read it, eVeN if itS tyPed stupid like that.
And I don't think we're dumbed down, because for those with inquisitive minds, google and wikipedia are heaven.
I think I can confidently say that this generation isn't afraid of writing. I once had an old employer write me a letter of recommendation. He was so reluctant and never did it, so I just had him sign the bottom of a paper and I wrote the letter myself. The same idea with my parents, too. I don't think older generations are as confident as we are (this does not apply to you, Miss Cellania ;D )

People are probably not really dumbed down. It just seems that way because the dumb people who, without the Internet, would never have written anything they didn't have to are now writing in public.

At first I thought Adi got it right, tho the rudeness and deterioration in grammar is dismaying [the latter is even "more bad" than before the internet :)]. But...
Everybody wants to talk - nobody wants to READ.
This is the crunch. Literacy levels are declining in my country, Canada. About half of Canucks can't manage a simple magazine article or novel, despite their spewing of ever greater volumes of broken english on the internet.
So, in this broader respect, i guess it is, at best, a wash, not a net gain.

"The fact that students today almost always write for an audience ..."

I'll have to disagree with this to a large extent. Most people who add their voices to the Internet are writing for themselves, not for others, otherwise they would make more of an effort to be coherent. Too much anymore, the responsibility of understanding is shifted to the reader, rather than remaining with the writer.

However, I believe Lynn has a good point in that the stupid didn't have as great a voice before the popularization of the Internet. And they seem to be the ones more apt to open their mouths without thought.

Still, if we're referring to literacy in the sense of reading comprehension, then yes, I wholeheartedly believe we are currently in a state of decline. I do, however, blame this on the schools, not the Internet.

Well it is doing absolutely nothing for Cat literacy

There's a grammatical error in the 2nd sentence. Hint - the word comes after "college."

Just saying.

Good eye, Gary... I had some inkling there was something wrong with that, but I was sleepy and it didn't come to me. I will fix it!