Have you seen this meme? Actually, this example has very little to do with grammar. What matters here is context.
Yes, I got a chuckle over this, but if we present this as evidence of a link between grammar and class / morality / character, that requires a bit of circular thinking.
First of all, the substitution of “u” for “you” has nothing to do with grammar, it’s just a shortcut often made by people who are typing on phones. Typing “u” for “you” does not affect the function the word plays in the sentence (grammar), though of course the word choice (diction) will affect the reader’s interpretation of the message.
My students can all shift between formal and informal language when the situation requires it, though they don’t always choose to make the effort. If you are trying to keep up with six different texting conversations, with people who all understand and use common abbreviations, the extra time it takes to type out the full words (and to capitalize and punctuate) is just not worth the penalty you pay (in that each message will take you about 5x longer to type).
More important, the typical person who uses a phone to search the Internet on any topic is going to be young, and therefore less likely to have gone to college to learn the kind of formal language that society sees as a marker of class and education.
But that’s not the only self-selection going on here.
A Googler who chooses to search for “an individual” rather than “u” or “you” or even “a person” is probably thinking of a word that contrasts with “society,” and that will affect the nature if the results being returned.
This is really a question of context.
Update, Aug 30 2013:
Every couple of weeks, this blog entry gets a burst of traffic as the “how can u” meme continues to propagate. I do enjoy the lively discussions. If you’d like to let me know where the meme is spreading now, and what brought you to this page, I’d be happy to know.
Some clarifications:
Post was last modified on %s = human-readable time difference 3:57 pm
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Meme in Virginia Beach, on facebook. It was shared from "so bad, so good" page.
I don't care how much longer it takes me to type "you", rather than "u". I simply can't force myself to resort to "u".
So your premise is that the difference between the set of search topics for "how can u" and "how can an individual" is not due to a difference in education level, but that people using cellphones search for "how can u mend a broken heart" while people on computers search for "how can an individual buy stock"....that's what you're saying? Get real. Seven out of nine of the "how can u" topics are venereal diseases. You can't honestly believe that people who are looking up medical conditions are more likely to choose to do that on their phones? I think you might be stretching just a bit to whitewash whatever social reality it is that is making you feel uncomfortable. Don't you hate it when Bill O'Reilly is intellectually dishonest? Guess what, when you do it, it isn't any more attractive.
If you compare how can you to how can u (same context different spelling) in google how can you only has negligibly "better" results.
So…. I’m an English professor, and when I write text messages, I occasionally use text-message abbreviations. (Feel free to judge me.)
You've used a four part ellipses in the beginning of a sentence about you being an English teacher. You ended the sentence correctly, but began a new sentence that was nothing but parenthesis with words inside and HAS A PERIOD BEFORE THE PARENTHESIS ENDS.
And you've omitted the hyphen in "four-part," used the singular article "a" with plural word "ellipses," and you've used all caps. What has either of us accomplished by pointing out these details?
I Would like to say that it would not matter how educated the user actually is but how educated he chooses to be while searching
I began posting a reply but I erased it when I found myself replying to what a person has written about a meme. Something that is meant to be funny, and nothing else.
I'll ask "u", though, if you think an educated person would ever need to ask google about how one contracts aids? ^^
This is like English teachers defending the "art" of Ebonics. It seems you just upgraded to a 1990's phone, which is great; however, most modern smartphones automatically turn "u" into "you" in order to correct grammar issues. Point being: most people that search the internet on mobile will have smartphone. An individual (see what I did there) has to attempt to put the letter "u" intentionally in order for the device to allow you to continue.
Dennis, I know this is over a year late, but I have to disagree partly. I agree fully with your two final sentences, which form the important part of your post. But I will disagree on the first statements. While substituting "u" for "you" is not a matter of grammar, it is not merely shorthand. It doesn't take 5x longer to type a complete word on a phone - if it does, it means the user has opted not to use the T9 or other form of predictive text built into the phone. Yes, on a smartphone with keyboard, it will take 3x longer to type the word "you" than "u". On a conventional numeric keypad, it takes 2 strokes to get "u" and 4 strokes to get "4", compared to 3 strokes for "you" and four strokes for "four". It shouldn't be necessary to attend college in order to have the most basic understanding of language. It is one thing to shorten words when texting a friend, and another thing to search using shorthand spelling. The meme incorrectly compares apples with oranges. It would have been more accurate to show search results for "how do u" vs "how do you". In this comparison, we do see a difference, albeit a much more subtle one. Still, that difference does illustrate a correlation between poor spelling and search keywords. It may well be that an individual chooses to use "u" whenever he/she searches for things like herpes, and uses "you" whenever he/she searches for ways to change the world, but I doubt it's very likely.
I disagree that it's comparing apples and oranges. If somebody is accustomed to typing one way to their friends, that is the way they are going to type their Google searches. It really comes down to how much they type in other areas. I do a lot of writing/typing in my profession where it is important that it is at least mostly correct. Therefore that is what I'm used to and it carries over to what I type when I'm texting friends or Googling. Some people only type when they're texting their friends or searching and so they have no real reason to worry about correctness as long as they get their point across and get their search results. It doesn't mean they are dumb or ignorant, it's just how they type.
Well phrased, Gerald.
a more interesting comparison, in my opinion, would be comparing Google's suggestions on "how can u" and "how can you". With a precursory look, they are not that much different:
with U
Get HIV
Get herpes
Get pregnant
with you
mend a broken heart
get herpes
get HIV
Not much difference!
There doesn't seem to be anyone stating the obvious here... That the comparison is not in fact between using you and u. The second search is a grammatically correct phrase which is usually incorrectly used in the form shown by the first search phrase. Conclusion... This is solely a grammatical issue.