Step away from the thesaurus.

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

So now there's a study supporting something that I've believed in for a while: that unnecessarily using big words and complicated language just makes you sound dumb.

The researcher, Daniel Oppenheimer, gathered a selection of writing samples--some written in normal, simple language, and others modified to use overly complex language and bigger words. Then these were handed to students to a group of evaluators. Guess what: the more complex and flowery the language of the sample, the less intelligent the students perceived its author to be.

It's not really that surprising when you think about it. It's true, having a large vocabulary can indicate that a person is knowledgeable. But the unnecessary use of big words and difficult language--which, let's face it, a lot of people do for the sake of sounding important or intelligent--can sacrifice fluency and clarity. Basically, it doesn't matter how impressive you think your two-dollar words are--if you cram them in it to the point that the language becomes unnatural and unclear, then you're doing it wrong. (“The chief virtue that language can have is clarity.” – Hippocrates)

There's a lot more to be said about being able to express complex ideas in simple language, not the other way around.

And personally, really, I think using big words to sound impressive is just lame. It always just sounds like you're really, really trying. xD

Here's a blog entry that briefly explains Oppenheimer's study (which is titled "Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly". LOL.); and here's the actual study in PDF.

Don't do it for the karma.

First things first: Plurk is awesome.

I know I've joined a lot of social networks* (both out of boredom and for my sideline writing gig), but of the ones that I actually use, Plurk is the one I've recently gotten hooked on. It's got a lot going for it--it's simple, it runs on interactivity, and it loads fast (no clutter). And it's just plain fun.

But of course, it has a dark side. Plurk runs on a karma system, which basically rewards activity--posting, responding to other people's plurks, and updating your profile. As your karma points go up, you get to go up certain levels (the stage of creation, enlightenment, nirvana, et cetera), unlock exclusive emoticons, et cetera. What makes this the dark side?

The people who do it for the karma.

See, it feels kinda nice to notice your karma points go up, but I guess some people are just really... driven. LOL. For these people, the desire to increase their karma points (and level up faster than you), is tremendous. Naturally, they resort to--well I don't know what it's really called--spam-bomb? Plurk-spam? Plurk...bomb? xDDD;

Whatever. They just post way too frigging often. And you can tell they're just doing it for the points. Why is this such a bad thing? Because it's just plain lame. Well, if these people are in your friends list, they will clutter up your timeline and bump back the plurks of your other friends. Ah, and every couple of minutes, you'll get an update on what they're thinking, or doing, or thinking of doing, looking at, sitting on, smelling. Even if it's not the least bit interesting anymore. (Because really, unless you're MacGyver, there's little chance that you're doing something interesting like, thirty times throughout a day.) It makes the whole thing just a little bit less fun. Also, it's lame.

The good news is that you can choose to un-follow these friends--you don't have to take them off your friends list, you just don't get their plurks on your timeline. That'll lower their karma a little. This is actually Plurk's way of discouraging people from over-posting. But it's hard to tell if this is effective (since a lot of people still do it). Besides, un-following people comes with a slight feeling of guilt, as though you're being mean. ;~; I myself have taken some people off my timeline. Because I just felt like being mean. :(

Some folks around the net have remarked that the karma system should be improved, so that the quality of the plurks matter too, not just the frequency. (I'm pretty sure the responses to your plurks are taken into account too. I guess that helps a little.) I'm too much of a right-brainer to try to figure out how it could be improved, but I'll welcome anything that would make the site even more fun.

By the way, I don't spam, so add me? xD

*A lot. Including sites you've probably never even heard of: sosauce, virb, meevee, the sixty one.

Update.

Two things:

Point #1 - My mom's in Japan. She'll be there till January. I'm glad she finally got to go, but... I miss her already. And timing, really--would've been nice to have her around considering all the crap that's been going on lately.

Which by the way brings us to Point #2 - A lot of crap has been going on lately. None of which I plan to explain here. This blog is not for drama.

Moving on--if you're not on my Multiply, you probably don't know that I've been doing Project 365. Basically, it's a commitment to take one photo a day for 365 days--to basically document your life for a year. It's a healthy exercise in forcing yourself to do something interesting (trans: photo op worthy xD) every single day. Or at least be creative with the usual things around you.

Here's a sampling of what I have so far. As you can see I am not that good a photographer nor that interesting a person xDDD but I'm having fun with it. Hopefully I fulfill the commitment for an entire year (LOLLLLL).

You can check out my Flickr photo set here.

On other matters of net-whoring, I'm on PLURK! Add me plskthxbai. :D