Nowadays, a small minority of children under age 45 are not only literate, but highly eloquent; the rest are monkeys at typewriters tapwriters, without the benefit of infinite time on their infinite scroll.

2006

https://www.techdirt.com/2006/07/31/instant-messaging-still-not-ruining-kids-grammar/

A few years ago, teachers and parents started worrying that “txt speak” from IM and SMS text messages was contributing to the downfall of the language, as kids would mix in txting shortcuts into school papers and such. However, study after study has shown this to be false. […] Can we finally put to bed the idea that text messaging is bad for kids’ writing skills?

2016

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/10/world/europe/period-full-stop-point-whatever-its-called-millennials-arent-using-it.html

One of the oldest forms of punctuation may be dying [sic]

The period—the full-stop signal we all learn as children, whose use stretches back at least to the Middle Ages—is gradually being felled in the barrage of instant messaging that has become synonymous with the digital age [sic]

2026

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/08/reading-crisis-postliterate-age/687618/

[T]he optimists overlook a crucial thread in the data: Text is thriving among a dwindling proportion of the population. Just 20 percent of adults accounted for more than 80 percent of all books read last year. […] [T]he people devoted to text, who derive cultural understanding and intellectual connection from the written word, are now part of a subculture. The fact that you are reading this article almost certainly makes you a member of it.

Well, that has consequences:

Marshall McLuhan once said, “The liberal world by definition is literate.” The inverse appears to be true as well.

If Trump is the first postliterate president, he won’t be the last.

I was wont to write a ten thousand word essay with my own take, but it wont fit in the margin of this tweet

sry 4 using postliterate cant, i cant be bothered 2 rite good :emoji: :emoji: :emoji:

post-literate = post-truth, enjoy the trumpery of the postliterate future u were in denial about in 2006, the future u ppl didnt want 2 c 20 yrs ago, that future is 2016, that future is now, those kids vote