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DigitalDevilSummoner

A 25 year old male from United Kingdom

Joined on July 21st 2012, last online 33 minutes ago

He has had 2,904 profile views and has posted in the forum 828 times which averages 3.49 posts per day

I was trying to type "Ear" all this time. I'm just really bad at spelling.

"I could care less".

/shoots own head

I prefer the more casual "um, well"

So he was referring to the verbal pause "err" and not "err on the side of caution". Well...how silly.

Errr... why so mad?

Ever seen Jurassic Park?  "Life will find a way..."  Well, so will human communication. Internet communication has always been more like spoken conversation than written.  Written communication is more asyncronous (think: I write a letter and mail it, you write a response and mail it, etc.), or entirely one-sided (newspaper article). That, coupled with the less formal style among the net's users in general, and you get "written speech".  It's the same reason we have emoticons. Love them or hate them, they evolved out of a need for non-verbal communication in a textual environment.

You kind of went a little erratic on the "ethnocentrism" point, but I'll indulge you a bit.  What you call "ethnocentrism" on the Internet may simply be people using their own language.  While you may be the most culturally superior Internet user, not everyone is so blessed. 

How it was explained to me was that "err" is the British equivalent of "um". Just replace it (or ignore it) in your head, and carry on. And find bigger things to worry about. This is a non-issue. Relax, it's Friday.

"Verbal pauses are avoided in real life, yet they are embraced on the internet."

Er ... what are you talking about? Filler words are used by nearly everyone. It's been said that many highly intelligent people use more filler words than normal. Very few people communicate in whole sentences. Sentence fragments are much more natural, as body language and physical cues often make up a large part of what we're saying.

As for using them in text, I'm fine with them if they serve a purpose. Language is about communication, it's not some fancy fluff that exists just so people can sound smart and puff up their ego. Anything that can be used to enhance communication should be used.

Notice my first sentence. I used "er" and an ellipsis to provide a pause between my initial consideration of your post and my answer. This is intended to communicate that I thought your post made little sense. The implication is that, even after pausing to think about it, it still seemed nonsensical. If this worked, if anyone understood my intention, then it's valid. Communication is communication.

how the hell does his join date say "posts since 31/12/69"

Wow , this is a serious problem, someone should shoot all of these people who say err.