Make it stop.

Let's start with you then.

Done. I don't have any children and am not using a device to occupy them.
In all seriousness, this outright angry reaction is really surprising. People should be angry that their children are illiterate, but I suppose if they were, the children wouldn't be.
- Using slang doesn't mean they're illiterate dawg
  
  Slang is actually a better way to communicate. You can communicate more, in a shorter amount of time, language is fluid, luddites gonna Luddite.
  
  I didn't say or imply that. The spread of the slang is over media they consume because parents are using devices as babysitters. Them being illiterate means they're illiterate, dawg.
  https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/education/students-cant-read-education/
  
  What? The only thing with any definitiveness in what you linked is that 72% of teachers are using an outdated method for teaching early level reading skills (letter and word recognition).
  As a secondary point, it says that teachers feel their kids can't read anymore so the teachers have taken to tiktok about it.
  There's nothing there indicating high levels of illiteracy, or that they've been caused by an over use of devices as babysitters, dawg.
  I think you need to brush up on your literacy.
  It sure as hell isn't a good thing, and it isn't helping kids read or develop, but this is the same argument that's as old as fucking time itself where older adults blame new technology for degeneration of the youth. People literally made the same complaint about radio dramas leading the youth astray.
  The core of the issue is that it has become increasingly easy for parents to use technology to avoid properly taking care of their damn kids.
  
  I literally just pulled the first link by searching "childhood literacy US," because I know many would be in denial. It really is hilarious how angry people are about this.
  
  Your unwillingness to read the link you post while asserting children are illiterate, is both tragic and funny.
  And that you then act like everyone else is silly for countering you? Go find a bridge, troll.
  
  I'm not responsible for people having such an extreme emotional reaction to an offhand comment on a meme. I truly wasn't ready for all this, and now I'm laughing at you all. I'm not sure what the hell is wrong with ya'll, but it isn't my problem.
  
  So you admit you did no actual research and just grabbed the first thing you found, and expect us to applaud you for it? GTFO
  
  I admit I did no ADDITIONAL research for a chat thread where people are irrationally angry over an offhand comment on a meme. I don't keep research papers on my phone for all information I've ever been exposed to ready to go incase assholes on the internet are upset. I don't expect you to "applaud me" for anything, I give zero fucks about you or your opinions. Any other questions?
  
  Why are you so defensive?
  
  You're absolutely right!
  
  It's a little sensational for the headline. 72% of fourth graders are reading below expected levels. And they are blaming decades old teaching tactics, which seems odd as you would expect a larger percentage of adults not to be able to read if this was truly the problem.
- I don't have any children
  Who'd have thought?
  
  The amount of people with no kids that have strong opinions about how children should be raised is like the people with no uteruses that have strong feelings about abortion and pregnancy, or white college kids who have strong opinions about what words and phrases should be offensive to minorities. There's nothing wrong with having an opinion, but the arrogance to think they have something to contribute to that conversation is exhausting.
- As the population of people raised on the internet increases, you'll see far more anger responses to the idea that being raised on the internet is bad for you.
  Nobody wants to believe they might not have done it right.
  That being said, kids generally do dumb things, and your initial comment seems a bit harsh for something as silly as rizz tag.
  
  There's a correlation that these kids are spending hours of their time on the internet (that's how this slang spreads to them) and the fact they can't read. I don't see how it's harsh to point it out, I just think maybe it hit too close to home for some folks.
  
  You just have a chain of unprovable assumptions there.
  Kid's use slang -> they must have picked it up on the internet -> many people are illiterate -> the parents of these specific kids are not raising them right

I do not see the connection between kids using slang and illiteracy. I’m guessing you never use(d) any yourself?

Also good luck prohibiting kids from the internet lol clearly someone doesn’t have kids!

Their parents give them devices so they don't have to deal with them. That's how this slang spreads to them. Do you think 6-10 year olds devoloped "mew?" It was grown ass "influencers" and it spread through media.
- You are aware that 6-10 year olds spend time around adults and other kids older than they are right? Did you never pick up anything from an older sibling or kid at your school?
  My 4 year old has all sorts of isms and habits he learned from me and my wife, aka his parents. There are tons of explanations beyond “all slang is the result of parents too lazy to raise kids so they drop them in front of an iPad.”
  We live in a society (seriously). We have communities. People spread language and customs every day between each other.
- The unhinged ramblings of a chronically online person.
  
  Uh uh
- And slang didn't exist before phones and the internet.
- Slang spreads offline as well
  The devices were TVs for a good while not too long ago

Do you mean half of the world's children, or half of the children in your own, unspecified country?

Literacy in my country is over 80%, which is still too low in my opinion, but fast better than half, thankfully.

Literacy, in my country, which is specified because it is the origin of the slang in the meme. You really thought you had a gotcha, there, didn't you?

"Kids can't read" is certainly a take. 😂

If everyone should learn to read, it would not only ruin writing but thinking as well.

—some embittered philosopher probably

What a "damn kids these days" quote