If you had a choice to change your age, would you become younger, older or remain the same ?

I'm 22, I wish I was 18 again !!!!

If it means that I'd know everything I know now and I'm just physically younger, then by all means younger. Otherwise I think I'd stay the same.

I'd give this survey a good rating if the question was more clear.

I would go some younger, but not a lot. Mid to late 30's. Stamina and energy high, sexuality peak, medical problems low.

I like the responsibility that I get that comes with being 29 years old.

the body I had then with the mind I have now would be better, though I'm not complaining

Younger. I'd want to be five again.

buy some more time? why not, as long as I retain my experience, knowledge, and skills.

well I would if I was able to go back knowing then what I know now and definately change things.

I like change and new situations- the idea of "going back" doesn't appeal to me, even if I could retain my skills and knowledge. I don't really feel at 31 that being physically younger would bring me any advantage. Any health/stamina issues I have seem to have arisen from ways I used my body before I knew I was mortal or able to be damaged- if I could undo that damage without undoing the lesson... probably.

Depends, would my age change from where I set it to? Also would I keep my current store of wisdom and knowledge? If yes to both then 2 years old. If no to either then same.

Age 23-28 was great.

Start in Kindergarten with the information that I have today.

Stay the same. I don't think I could survive puberty again, and I don't look forward to sagging and gray hair either.

I would like to be a kid again. They don't have anything major to worry about like bills or anything

The two problems with being a kid again, particularly if you keep the knowledge you have now, are that 1) you are largely not in control of many aspects of your life and 2) you have to go through being an adolescent again. No, thank you.

Younger but with my current knowledge and experience.

To be the same age as the person I fell in love with would be nice. Oh well, I can always dream.

Wicksy I think the best age is 24 so I would like to be a year younger. By the way Wicksy good question.

It does not matter to much because I look much younger than my age but I would say younger who really wants to get older just as long as I do not have to go back to where I was in my life when I was younger because I like my life a lot better now

Patty: I would prefer that you use correct grammar and punctuation in your comments. Please note that I don't actually expect you to care; I simply couldn't continue to never express this preference, and I thought that there was perhaps a very small chance that you'd be inspired to write differently, so it was worth a try. Thank you for tolerating my expression of fastidiousness.

There are things in my life I would have done differently, but I'm happy with my current age.

Steve if you do not like what I wrote or do not understand what I write when you see things next to my name that I wrote PLEASE DO NOT READ THEM we all do not speak the same around the world Are you a teacher.? Do not have to answer Because I Do not care !!!!! Is that clear enough

patty: if you do not like what steve writes, or do not understand his comments, PLEASE DO NOT READ THEM. We all do not butcher the English language. Are you a high school drop-out? You do not have to answer because I do not care! Is that clear enough?

LMAO

EB--Grammatical snobbery can be a way for elites to take away the voice of those people who do not have the same advantages. So long as she is communicating what she wishes then what do the details matter? I think good grammar is important so long as it enhances understanding, but so long as understanding is achieved what does grammar matter?

I'm sorry; I tried really hard to express the fact that I don't expect anyone to care about my preferences. I only made the statement that I did in case patty was perfectly capable of correctly framing and punctuating her sentences, was not bothering to do so, and was willing to do so if someone else that she has never met and has no reason to care about wanted her to. It seemed worth a try. (As for the question, "What does grammar matter?" my internal grammar checker uses a mildly unpleasant sense of wrongness to tell me that the sentence I am pondering is incorrect. I sought to avoid this sensation.) It was never my intention to give offense. I only sought to make my own life a little easier.

Steve- I think the original suggestion was phrased in very polite language. Polite language does not necessitate a noble intent, however. A public school accent has been a tool of oppression in many English speaking countries for more years than I care to think about. I was simply commenting that this is the case. If you don't wish to give the impression that you are attempting to suppress the voice of someone who has every right to post here, then perhaps you should choose your words with somewhat more care. I trust that what I am attempting to communicate is clear to you. If it is clear to you then it should not require any comments about my own grammar.

Handle: Yup, patty has every right to post here. And I have every right to post here as well. Her use of language annoys me. Apparently it annoys several other people as well, who often choose to remain nameless, probably to avoid accusations of "elitism". I fail to understand why our possibly offending her by complaining about her grammar is not ok, while her offending people with her butchery of the English language is fine. I think that's a very hypocritical stance you're taking.

EB- There are two reasons why this is not a hypocritical stance for me to take.

1. She is not writing in a grammatically incorrect manner in a deliberate attempt to annoy you. She is writing in her own vernacular, or dialect, in an attempt to make her opinion known. You, however, are deliberately offending her with an intentional and premeditated complaint about her grammar. Since she is acting without intent to do harm and you are acting deliberately to make her feel bad then my sympathies are with her.

2. There is a power relationship here that is present wherever discrimination takes place. If you were to heckle someone and drive them from this site because they did not follow the forms dictated by the elites then you are serving as an instrument of oppression. I consider this a pretty fair definition of elitism. I do not know why you chose to enclose that word in quotes unless you meant to imply that elitism has no basis in reality but is merely the product of my fertile imagination. Perhaps you meant to imply that I was using the word improperly?

I never said, explicitly or implicitly, that you had no right to post here. For you to suggest that I did is dishonest. I reserve the right, however, to call you on any postings that you might make that are unjust. If you are really interested in maintaining the forms and standards of civilization perhaps you should avoid leaping like a pack of wild dogs on anyone who is different than you. Art and language are important but justice is even more so.

Handle: What you are communicating is fairly clear, and your grammar is impeccable. These facts are perhaps not entirely unrelated. Anyway, please accept my assurances that my intent, while in no way "noble" (it was, in fact, entirely selfish), was not to hurt or silence patty either.

Elijahblue: Actually, while Handle's position could be viewed as hypocrisy, so can affirmative action. I think it's a very similar case; Handle seems to be saying that complaining about an annoyance in a way that reinforces the status quo and concentrates power in the hands of the powerful is more offensive to him or her than complaining about an annoyance in a way that seeks to deprive the powerful of one of the tools by which they (which, in this case, oddly enough, means "we") seek to maintain their (or "our") hold on power.

Handle: I do not complain in a deliberate attempt to make anyone feel bad. I complain because seeing language abused bothers me, and I would occasionally like to make this opinion known. Will you speak out against people whose grammar is atrocious if they drive me from this site in frustration? And if patty really wants to make her opinion known, shouldn't she be interested in learning how to express that opinion in a way that doesn't require her reader to spend 20 minutes parsing her sentences? My position is not elitism because I would love for patty to start expressing herself in a more comprehensible way. I don't want the power of clear language to remain in the hands of a few, I want everyone to speak and write clearly and correctly.

Comparing someone who doesn't want to learn to express herself well with a disenfranchised minority member would be offensive if it weren't so incredibly silly as to not be worth taking seriously.

steve: I was never before aware of the immense power I wield as an economically strapped, female bleeding heart liberal.

elijahblue : I think you are being completely unfair to patty. Would you respond in the same way if a person was French and trying to improve their English at S.C. There is no way of knowing if they're French or not so to write in all snobbishly accusing patty of bad English grammer etc. etc. is not fair Try being an egalitarian and not a snob.

Wicksy: sigh. Obviously she is a "native speaker" of English. And she's not trying to improve her English, that's kind of the point. If she were trying to communicate better, rather than insisting on her right to be illiterate and declaring her intention to remain that way, you wouldn't hear the slightest peep out of me.

As for being an egalitarian, I doubt that you will find anyone more so on this site. I do favor a classless society, and have in fact debated against capitalist, stratified-society types several times. I am so incredibly not an elitist or a snob, that's the point. I don't think literacy should be reserved for the elite. You guys are the ones arguing that she can't write correctly, and that I should give the poor dear a break. I contend that she absolutely can and that it is important for her to do so, in part because writing so atrociously will inevitably keep her down.

I think it's really important, in general, to point out when something isn't right. If we do not do this, then we give in to mediocrity and our society and species will stagnate and decay.

"those people who do not have the same advantages" - Handle is putting down patty here, implying that she is unable to produce properly punctuated and grammatically correct sentences. Also, the defense of such poor punctuation and grammar sends the message to patty that it's OK to be sloppy and wrong.

patty the only way for you to get these people off your back is to do better. Put a little effort into grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Life rewards people who work to improve themselves. doging about people who criticize you for your mistakes isn't a winning strategy. You should be thankful for people like steve and elijahblue who tell you what you are doing wrong. Other people read your garbled prose and simply dismiss you as an incompetent fool.

Thank you Handle and Wicksy for your kind words.FIRST LET ME SAY I DID NOT COME ON HERE TO OFFEND PEOPLE WITH MY HORRIBLE MIS SPELLING AND POOR USE OF ENGLISH, I JUST THOUGHT THIS WAS A SURVEY YOU JUST ANSWER QUESTIONS I DID NOT KNOW THAT I WOULD COME ON HERE AND GET TO SEE ABOUT EVERY SINGLE MISSPELLED WORD AND MY POOR USE OF GRAMMER COMMENTED ON,I THOUGHT THIS WAS SURPOSE TO JUST BE SOMETHING FUN.THE STRANGE THING IS I DO NOT EVER REMEMBER ASKING ANYONE FOR THEIR COMMENTS ON ANYTHING I SAID YOU PEOPLE ARE THE ONES THAT STARTED THIS WHOLE THING BY FIRST MAKING A COMMENT ABOUT SOMETHING I WROTE ,AND ANOTHER THING I NEVER CURSED AT ONE PERSON ON HERE SORRY THAT IS NOT ME I ALWAYS TRY TO BE NICE TO PEOPLE BUT YOU PEOPLE ARE JUST PLAIN RUDE AND I REALLY DO NOT LIKE PEOPLE WHO DO NOT EVEN KNOW ME MAKING COMMENTS ABOUT ME I NEVER ASKED FOR ANYONES HELP!!! BY THE WAY GLIJAHBLUE YES I DID GRADUATE HIGH SCHOOL MANY MANY YEARS AGO SORRY I'M NOT AS SMART AS ALL YOU PEOPLE I WILL NOT COME BACK ON AND ANSWER ANYMORE SURVEY'S I DO NOT WANT TO OFFEND PEOPLE WITH MY POOR USE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND BUTCHER IT AS YOU SAY. I DID NOT KNOW ONLY SMART PEOPLE AND PEOPLE WHO CAN SPELL CORRECTLY SHOULD BE ANY HERE I THOUGHT ANYONE COULD LOOK OR ANSWER ON THIS SURVEY..GOOD BYE PEOPLE

Good bye Patty.

There go our hopes for broader demographics.

Now that you have succeeded in driving another participant away from your forum I have to ask who's going to be next?

EB- To imply that someone has the ability to write with correct grammar and is simply refusing to do so in an attempt to annoy you is either farsical or scary. If it is meant as an argumetative ploy then it is vanishingly weak, if you truly believe that Patty was doing this then you seem to be self-centered to a degree that is not healthy. It would be a grave insult to remind you how unlikely it is for an individual to be the target of conspiracies by strangers and I will not do so. I will say that so long as it is justifiable to discriminate against a person for poor grammar or poor education or lack of money that other discrimination will never go away.

To classify those who does not express themselves well as people who do not WANT to express themselves is cruel. I am a special education teacher and I deal every day with inner-city kids who have difficulty in school. There is not a single one of them that does not want to learn to read. or want to learn to express themselves better. There is not a single one of them who does not come alive if a person can find a way to make that knowledge accessible to them. One thing I can assure you, there is no adult with poor grammar who will be assisted by non-specific criticism such as, "you should improve your grammar." Is your honest belief that a simple complaint will suddenly cause the person to change the way that they express themselves? Perhaps in your "egalitarian" society all those who are benighted and ignorant should touch their forelocks and bow when you deign to honor them with such inspiring words as, "Her use of language annoys me." Should this fact exclude her from participating in this exchange of ideas? Whether or not it was your intent, your actions served no constructive purpose, and the end-result was only to make a fellow human being feel bad. Finally, I cannot imagine grammar that is so atrocious that it would drive even the most sensitive user from this forum. At worst you could simply skip her posts, that were, after-all, not addressed to you personally. Your posts were addressed to Patty so it is understandable how she might not skip over them.

bill- May I first point out that I have tremendous admiration for you in many ways. You have created a really neat site and you do an admirable job of administrating it. I should also add that I generally think that you are very fair. Here, however, you are way off-base. It is not putting Patty down to say that she has not had the same advantages as someone with a better education, it's merely being real. If she had the same advantages then she would be able to write better English. The put-down would be to assume she had the same advantages and lacked the intelligence or moral fiber to actually write good grammar. Also I did not say that being "sloppy and wrong" is OK. I said that incorrect grammar should not exclude anyone from participating in this forum. To say otherwise is misrepresentation. Finally, I agree with you that it should be pointed out when something is wrong. In my own eyes that is what I am doing now.

EB-- Be sure to look at Seth's racist comment and be sure to realize that on this issue he is on the same side as you.

Now wait just a moment. I was pretty completely with you, Handle (And I regret my original error in assuming that Patty was capable of better grammar and simply chose not to exercise it, but, to be honest, which seems safe now that she's gone and won't be hurt by the comment, the possibility never occurred to me that she was unable to write more correctly than that.), until you mysteriously decided that Seth's comment was racist. The word "demographic" does not imply anything about race. The online dictionary that Survey Central links to defines "demography" as "the statistical study of human populations especially with reference to size and density, distribution, and vital statistics." In this case, I read Seth's comment as a sad realization of the fact that we are a fairly intellectually uniform group, and that our behavior here (my own in particular) is acting to prevent that from changing. I see no implication of any racial assumptions on Seth's part.

steve--What you say is fair. There are times I see racists behind every bush and this is not always true. I may have misinterpreted Seth's comment and if I did so then I apologize.

HANDLE : Thank God there are people like you around. Your long speech touched me inside. I hope that patty will change her mind and come back. Elijah blue, I hope you read Handle's comment and I hope you change because of it. Judicial you should be, NOT JUDAS !!!!

I may not use the correct grammar always, but I do know that when someone doesn't give a s**t about using punctuation and how to behave on the net, someone has to tell that person that he or she should rethink that behaviour.

I have always considered it to be an example of poor manners when grammar is corrected in comments to surveys on other subjects. One of the things that makes the internet (and email) interestting is the way that people type as the would speak and not as the would write (IMHO). It makes for a much more informal style and open for the flow of ideas. Handle is spot on to say that comments like 'improve your grammar' are not helpful. In fact they are like saying "don't catch a disease" or "think clearly".

Elijahblue: Re-read the first paragraph of your most recent comment in this survey. Now contrast it with the second. I accept from other things you have said that you are generally a reasonable person. However I would say that to start judging peoples abilities and intentions and trying to change them is not what I would say was egalitarian. You say earlier "I want everyone to speak and write clearly and correctly," - isn't this "I want everyone to do as I do"?


It is my view that people have a right to speak poorly and to reject "invitations" for self improvement. I also believe people have a right to have the opportunities for such self improvement. I do not believe that I have the right to decide which route others should take. This approach is what I know to be classic English Liberalism. I would say that however "bleeding heart liberal" is not a phrase which accurately describes the right wing prescriptive overtones in all too many comments here.

I am with seth; we have lost three people now who don't conform to the spelling and grammar writing demanded by steve, EB, bill etc. Are we trying to maintain some "intellectual purity" of the pool of SC users? I for one would prefer to see the number of survey responses increase instead.

Guthrie - In what way does keeping people, who doesn't behave, out maintain "intellectual purity"?

We are never ever going to agree on this, people.

But we do have enough people on each side of the issue to play a game of basketball.

Team #1:
Bill, Jen, EB, Mattias, and They

Team #2:
Patty, Wicksy, Handle, Seth, and Guthrie

Steve the fence-sitter can referee.

Mattias: Well, when "don't behave" becomes "don't conform to they way that I think language should be used" or "hasn't learned enough to use language 'correctly'" or "isn't trying hard enough to use language correctly" or "responds irrationally" then I think it is the case that it is the intellectuals rejecting people outside their group. The three that I was thinking of (Patty, Brian and Michael) have suffered from this.

I think Handle put the points about linguistic elitism very clearly and I would recommend the comment to elijahblue nearer the beginning of this survey as an example.

Steve clearly identified that, in this case, what he was doing was self-serving but he failed to identify that he would offend. I find this is astonishing. Would one really behave this way to someone overheard in a cafe, for example? All I can say is that I hope not.

Mattias, in response to your other recent comment I would add that of course you may decide to tell people "how to behave" (provided you are so sure that you know best) but what do you do when they reject your suggestions?

Guthrie, you're wrong. I removed Brian and Miykal because they were abusing the system. It had little to do with their spelling, though it is interesting that both of them were poor spellers. I have blocked patty as well -- not because she used poor grammar, spelling and punctuation -- but because she was abusing the system. Did you notice her posting lots of comments on different surveys, all flaming about how everyone was picking on her "grammer" (this on surveys that had no previous mention of her misuses of English)? This was abusive. She was using the system to retaliate. It was childish and annoying. Brian and Miykal both did similarly abusive things. I feel if I let abusive people like this do whatever they want on Survey Central, they will make it so unpleasant here that many good (non-abusive) users will leave, and that would be sad. I see no reason for putting up with such abusive treatment.

I'm offended by your statements that misrepresent my actions.

Handle, I find it very enlightening that you are a special education teacher. My position on this very topic was just recently influenced greatly by my wife's parents who both believe that special education is largely a flawed concept. Their son (my brother-in-law) who was classified as having Attention Deficit Disorder when he was young and thus was put into special education classes while in grade school. They felt that the special ed teachers never really pushed him to overcome his disabilities. Instead they were more focused on being compassionate to his problem and let him slip through grades doing less than his peers. As he entered High School, he begged them to be put in normal classes (he didn't like the stigma of being "special"), and they said "OK". It was hard, but he turned things around and in fact turned out to be very successful, he's currently got a high-paying technical position at Lucent Technologies.

Thus, when I saw you defend patty's lack of skill - I immediately saw this as just like the kind of thing my in-laws were talking about. It's pretty amazing that your background aligns so well with their story too!

I don't mean to put you and your career choice down. I realize that the story I just told is just one data point. Still, I find it very compelling.

How can you defend patty's lack of spelling ability, when clearly she has disabled (or is simply ignoring) the spell-checker? To misspell grammar so many times... I feel this is much more likely a case of her not caring or being lazy. In such a case, I feel it is highly inappropriate to defend her poor performance.

bill- I'm glad your brother-in-law was shifted from special education classes to regular ed classes. This is the goal of the "least restrictive environment" clause of the IDEA legislation. Since your brother-in-law is doing well in his new placement this would seem to indicate that the system is working.

I don't think the travails of your brother-in-law have much to do with the situation at hand though. The question is, and always has been, should someone's poor grammar prohibit them from participating in a public forum on the internet? These seems to be an issue of censorship to me... Are you in favor of censoring the input of the people who frequent this site?

Okay, I should probably shut up, but I'm not going to. Instead, I am going to take exception to being incorrectly characterized.

Guthrie, I refuse to agree that I "demanded" anything of anyone. I made a request of Patty. I tried to do so politely. What did I do when my request was denied? I apologized for giving offense. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa.

I'll say it again: it honestly never occurred to me that that was the limit of Patty's command of grammar. If you find this astonishing, I'll ask you to consider that I work as an academic scientist. I reside in the ivory tower. I freely acknowledge that I am naive and sheltered in this regard. I deeply regret that, because this is the case, I gave someone offense. That I find her response to the offense vitriolic and childish in no way ameliorates my own offense.

In a cafe, I would have no reason to believe that I was going to go on hearing this same shoddy speaker indefinitely. Patty showed every indication of a willingness to comment on every survey, with no end in sight.

And honored though I am to be characterized as a fence-sitter (Blessed are the fence-sitters, for they shall start fewer than their share of holy wars.), I'm afraid I don't know the rules of basketball well enough to referee. Perhaps I could do color commentary.

I saw nothing wrong with what steve said to patty. When I first saw his comment, it looked to me like he was informing her that people usually speak in relatively correct grammar at this site-just in case she was capable of doing the same. He even told her that if she didn't care for his opinion, that she could disregard it.

Um, I was wondering if we could play something other than basketball... Soccer, maybe?

I'll try to make my self clear, but I don't think I have the vocabulary to get every thing crystal clear.

I've always tried to live so I treat others just like I would like them to treat me. This makes me tell people when I have a different opinion on what's right or wrong. I want others to tell me their opinion. But when people get abusive just because they don't want to hear my opinion and don't stop even after an serious apology, then they are stepping over the line.

I would have tolerated patty, even if she hadn't changed her way of writing her normal comments; the abusive, flaming ones I didn't.

Handle, I don't know where you got that idea. I would never ban or censor someone for poor grammar, and I don't think anyone else wants that either. We just want an environment where pointing out such flaws is OK and normal. I am not in favor of censorship for several reasons: It freaks out users when I do it (which may cause them to leave); It's just wrong and evil; I simply don't have the time and energy to do it; and my personality is way to uneven and moody to do it fairly.

I'll say again, I banned patty for her abusive actions, not for her grammar. I did so to preserve the integrity of the site.

bill, I think your original comment to patty ("You should be thankful for people like steve and elijahblue who tell you what you are doing wrong") was sanctimonious and rude, and that making it as "bill" invoked an authority you should not have invoked. If patty's response in other surveys was anything like her response here I don't think it warranted banning her.

Patty's postings here have been in perfectly proper transcribed spoken English, which is not the same language as written English.

and Handle, that's "farcical".

I often think that my own use of Survey Central is problematic. Given the power I wield, I can't really be like everyone else. I am held to a higher standard. When I make a mistake it's much worse. When I express an opinion it holds more power than someone else.
I don't mean to imply that Phi shouldn't have said what he just did. I think his criticism is fair and accurate (as usual), and is certainly a valid opinion.
I find no solution to this problem. If I make my comments as anonymous, it annoys a good many people (who simply hate anonymous comments). Plus, I don't want to be anonymous, many people I know use Survey Central. I don't want to hide from them, I want to be me. Creating another user account has the same problems. So, I can't be like everyone else here.
I've considered leaving entirely, but I think this site would suffer. There is a fair amount of administration that is needed, and it helps. I even think that removing Brian has been a very helpful thing and that things are much better since he left. Also, if I don't use Survey Central, I will not understand it well enough to administer it well. I will not see the need for various enhancements and will not know how to craft them properly. Also, I like to use it. Still, leaving may ultimately be the best solution. I'd certainly have more free time for other projects.

BILL : Stay around, it's a much better place with your comments

I wanna go back.......change things...knowing what I know now.....

and I would like to add something to the debate........From this moment forward...in this forum...I will be watching
my grammar and spelling very carefully........*LOL

I know that everyone says to cherish your youth, but always being a couple years to young and never going anywhere blows...

Older, but only by a few years. I would want to jump to about 21. That way I'm legal age to do anything and I will be about to graduate college. So basically all the turmoil I'm facing now will be over.

Wow. I came in late on this one. With the 20/20 vision of hindsight, I would say that we have an impasse between being inclusive and maintaining a standard of literacy. We should probably all try to accept in our hearts that every once in a while, this will cause conflict, and try not to get too bent out of shape about it. Steve: Your qualifications as a basketball referee must be quite something if your skill as a color commentator exceeds them Not that my own would do better, I'm sure. Anyway, you know the phrase "jump shot"...

Um, steve's gone.

why did steve leave?

My understanding is that it was a huge timesink that was producing more annoyance than pleasure. He went away for a few days and fell behind and took that opportunity to kick the habit.

He'll be missed. I enjoyed his commentaries....

5 years younger

I would be 15 again and PARTY!!

I'd love to start out at about 19 again if I could know what I know now and be where I am now.

I finally feel like my age fits...i'm staying here...forever

Even though I'd rather be 18 than 23, 23 is better than 30/40/50/150 !!

I like being 19. Turning 20 in December scares me though.

30 just rocks. Don't be afraid of getting older, it just keeps getting better.