The Internet’s influence on language: can English survive IM, Twitter, Email, and Emoticons? (IMHO, NP)

Musings, cartoons, and observations to be presented at Supper ClubTuesday, June 19th 2007Cherie Dargan

Overview

Look at some cartoons and examples of how language is being used online (especially IM)

Examine concerns of a few linguists and researchers in the way that IM abbreviations are moving into the f2f world, as well as the impact of email on writing letters

Explore ways the web has influenced our use of language, but also how we communicate and interact overall

Beginning assumptions

Language is tied to culture and identity Groups share a common language – a

symbol system. (Outsiders may not “get it.”)

Language is dynamic: it changes over time. Some words drop out of usage or get retooled (boot – boot) and others are added.

Language is a bridge between individuals, groups, cultures, and generations

Has the Internet affected your life—and your language? Have you googled a person, event or

word lately? Read a blog? Watched a video or read a story posted on CNN? Logged on to an online bank or investment account, or shopped at Amazon or E bay? Checked your email and forwarded a link to a great new video at Youtube?

These terms are all part of our collective lexicon, thanks to the Internet.

Netlingo—an online dictionary

How has the web made it easier to communicate? Email part of our routine for business and home Forums for posting reviews of books, issues,

and products Tools to create blogs without any programming

knowledge Focus on user generated content and

interaction (social networking sites, Youtube) Most companies have a web presence, with

space for customers’ comments My personal examples—faculty web and blogs

Google mail includes chat

Faculty web page, HCC

Ruth Suckow Blog

Lost in the Stacks Blog contributor

Cartoons – people having fun with internet slang Here are a few cartoons showing the

way language is being used in cyberspace—and f2f (face to face) alike

Online Dating cartoon 5 - catalog reference ksmn1803

                                                                            

Email courtship

Online Dating cartoon 7 - catalog reference hsc1837

                                                                                                             

'I'm sorry, Jason. I don't date anyone new until I've googled them.'

Google your date

Social Networking sites

Text message performance review

Baby IM

Texting at work

Text to speech (They called him Text)

Zits (Peer editing an essay)

Zits, cont.

Zits (“aren’t they cuter than words?”)

Zits (Teaching mom to text)

Zits, cont.

Themes--or concerns

Is Text messaging taking over our lives? Who can keep up with all the new tech terms

(and technology) when they become buzz words overnight?

The good news – anyone can have a web presence. The bad news – anyone can have a web presence.

With so many people using email, who writes letters?

Other quick observations, using one of Mike’s all time favorite movie stars, Clint Eastwood.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly about the WWW

The Good

Lots of information—e-books, online journals, CNN, NPR, online libraries, and don’t forget wikipedia

Lots of opportunities to interact with people via email and discussion boards

Whole web sites devoted to very specific topics, hobbies, or people (something for everyone)

Search engines and online databases make it easier to do research on questions ranging from trivial (who was that guy in the movie with Brad Pitt?) to important (health concerns, the best car according to Consumer Reports, or shopping for a hotel room)

The Bad

Typos, grammatical errors, and blatant misspellings in way too many web pages

Lack of consistency in format, such as a note of when content was last updated, or absence of the credentials of person/organization posting content

Tendency of students to think info across the net is equally credible (a blog posting, IM, or Mayo Clinic e-newsletter)

Too much “junk” that is old, hard to navigate, or difficult to verify as credible

The Ugly

Hate sites The “mean girls’ ” postings on Face

book, blogs, and other personal pages Sites promoting eating disorders,

cutting, suicide Cyber bullies Pedophiles Scams and other criminal activity Terrorists

My Concerns

Many people are obsessed with texting, and it is creeping into their everyday speech and writing. (So should I develop a new system of grading comments in text?)

I see lots of references to it being used in a variety of way: IM Reference, IM to vote on a favorite song or person, or to enter a contest. What’s next?

People are asking questions like “Is it okay to use text messaging….” To say I LOVE YOU for the first time? To ask someone out? To break up? (netfamilynews blog) There are also articles discussing the

gender differences—men use messaging “to manage relationships while women view text as another way to foster emotional interaction.” (Pressner, USA Today)

More facts on text messaging Over 90% of wireless customers in the U.

S. are equipped to send text messages The number sent has doubled every year,

exploding to 7.3 billion in June 2005 along, compared with 2.9 billion in June 2004.

One writer described them like junk food, calling them “fast cheap and easy….text is replacing some cell phone calls” (Pressner, USA Today)

There’s even a Text message novel! Posted 1/24/2007 12:54 PM ET HELSINKI, Finland (AP) — A novel in which

the entire narrative consists of mobile phone text messages was published Wednesday in Finland, home of the world's top handset maker Nokia Corp.

The Last Messages tells the story of a fictitious IT-executive in Finland who resigns from his job and travels throughout Europe and India, keeping in touch with his friends and relatives only through text messages.

Text message novel, cont.

His messages, and the replies — roughly 1,000 altogether — are listed in chronological order. The texts are filled with grammatical errors and abbreviations.

"I believe that, at the end of the day, a text message may reveal much more about a person than you would initially think," said Luntiala (the author)

http://www.wastedblog.com/viewcontent.php?AlwaysUseFrame=1&IdContent=4612

And now, it’s time for a quiz! Which of the

following terms do you recognize?

List taken from the article “OMG: IM Slang is Invading Everyday English” (NPR, Neda Ulaby)

“OMG: IM Slang is Invading Everyday English” (NPR, Neda Ulaby) RUOK? BBL BRB IMHO JK LOL LYLAS

NP OMG OTP ROFL TTFN TTYL YW

And now the Translation…

RUOK: Are you okay?

BBL: be back later BRB: be right back IMHO: in my

humble opinion JK: just kidding LOL: laughing out

loud LYLAS: love you like

a sister

NP: no problem OMG: oh my God OTP: on the phone ROFL: rolling on the

floor laughing TTFN: Ta-ta for now TTYL: talk to you

later YW: you’re welcome

Three of the most popular IM terms By the way, another writer, Haig,

identifies the three most popular IM terms: LOL, IMHO and BFN

OMG: IM Slang, cont.

(Weekend Edition, Feb. 18, 2006) Quotes Professor David Crystal, “I see a

brand new language evolving, invented really by young people…”

He also says that these terms “extend the range of the language, the expressiveness…the richness of the language.”

Not everyone is in agreement with him.

Taking sides on IM…

Professor Crystal compares the introduction of IM slang into face to face communication as something like the revolution that occurred when Gutenberg introduced his movable type. (In other words, NBD—no big deal)

Others disagree, stating that since these terms are abbreviations for existing phrases they don’t enrich anything but simply shorten it. (wikipedia)

LOL in F2F (ROFL?)

Increasingly, these IM terms are slipping into face to face communication. For example, LOL (Lahl) and ROFL (rafful)

Professor Lacetti is critical of the acronyms. “Unfortunately for these students, their bosses will not be “lol” when they read a report that lacks proper punctuation and grammar, has numerous misspellings, various made-up words, and silly acronyms.” (The Lost Art of Writing, quoted in “Internet Slang,” Wikipedia)

Reactions to the NPR story from the blogosphere Blog posting by jadedlistener, Feb. 25

2006 Writer recalls a teenager explaining

that teens might say LOL to someone who told a bad joke (as in NOT funny).

“Imagine that! “laugh out loud” means the opposite of “laugh out loud”—leave it to those wacky teenagers!”

Jadedlistener’s blog, cont.

Some terms like ROFL have been reduced to one “word” in roffle. “OMG! Professor Crystal even says that he believes Shakespeare himself would have loved this new language. Academics say the darndest things!”

He gives examples from the past: college friends who used to hold entire conversations using one word (Dude)

Rap music twisting the meanings (Word – I agree)

Interesting insight – context matters! Jadedlistener concludes, “These new

lingos don’t “enrich” anything: they just shorten it. …the point of speaking this way, as with my friend’s “dude” conversations is to strip communication of language altogether and to make it completely dependent on contextual expressiveness.”

This leads us to a cautionary note Bidgoli warns that these abbreviations

“save keystrokes for the sender but might make comprehension of the message more difficult for the receiver.”

(“Internet Slang,” Wikipedia) The next writer was even more blunt.

Internet slang: the dummening* of our culture -- by Siren http://eville.net/articles/netslang.html “Internet slang. Geez. Who made this up? It's

like handicapped typing. It's like another language. It's dreadfully annoying to people who can actually type out entire words and phrases without the help of some kind of set code made up by some teenage pseudo-internet guru chewing pink bubblegum.

The word "you" is just entirely too long. So how can we shorten it? I just don't get it. How much time does one actually save by doing this? Assuming you type more than six words a minute, not much.”

Siren’s take on Internet Slang, cont. “I can read "Does anyone want to chat?" much

easier than I can read "NE1 want 2 chat?"...and chances are, I'll ignore someone who chose the latter way to type a sentence, being that I assume the entire "conversation" will be one big guessing game after another.

No, it's not that hard to figure it out, but why in hell should you have to RE-read a simple sentence in order to understand what it means? Is this slang thing some exclusive club for people who can't type properly? Is that why we weren't briefed on it?”

* HIS spelling!

Next, what is twitter, and why should you care? If Siren was annoyed by text

messaging, he will really be annoyed by twitter….

A brand new service that lets people send short messages that focus on what he or she is doing RIGHT NOW

Sample print screen

The official explanation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter Twitter is a social networking and

micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) via SMS, instant messaging, the Twitter website, or an application such as Twitterrific. Twitter was founded in October 2006 by San Francisco start-up company Obvious Corp.

Twitter map

You can actually look at a map and see where people are located as they post their messages.

Some are fascinated with this, and others are critical, saying that it is all just a fad.

However, is something more going on?

Twitter map

Netspeak– a new kind of language? Professor Crystal is a noted scholar and

the author or editor of several books on language, including The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language, 1995.

Uses “netspeak” to describe what he sees as a “third medium” to speech and writing. It has some of the qualities of both.

Crystal was cited in numerous articles.

Franklin Cook: 3 seminal events in the development of language Development of speech approximately

40,000 years ago Development of writing about 6,000

years ago Development of digital communication

via the www in the closing decade of the 20th century.

Language on the internet is a new mode, according to Dr. Dieter Stein

A New Mode—linguistic hybrid Stein cites David Crystal, who wrote

two books in the past couple of years: Language and the Internet and The Language Revolution.

Stein calls the new mode a linguistic hybrid, because it has qualities of “spokenness” and “writenness”

Research results of IM fit the new mode Naomi Baron collected IM from college

students and analyzed them. She found “they used few abbreviations, acronyms and emoticons, the spelling was reasonably good… Overall the study suggested that conversing through instant messager resembled speaking more than writing.”

Side note: 70% said they were doing other activities while they IM’d or talking to other people at the same time.

Wired words article

As noted, the Internet transformed our notions of print and email has turned us all into writers. Some examples:

Blog (online journal) Post or view videos Twitter (send short messages to describe

what you are doing RIGHT NOW. 140 characters limit)

Tag content (delicious)

“The web is not the death of language” “Traditional linguists fear the internet

damages our ability to articulate properly, infusing language with LOLs, dorky emoticons, and the gauche sharing of personal information on blogs,” Kristen Philipkoski

She cites David Crystal, who says that any new technology tends to bring out the prophets of doom. He thinks the internet is getting more people to write, and that is a good thing.

From article dated 2/25/05

Where’s the quality control? The Internet and content McCabe points out that “the internet is one

big vanity press,” (cited in Cook article) This provides people with an opportunity to

tell their stories; however, the gatekeepers of traditional publishing are disappearing.

Print magazines have editors and/or peer reviewers. This is not always true for online publications.

One thing we are all writing & reading is email

Statistics about email

An October 2006 report by technology market research firm The Radicati Group estimates that there are "1.1 billion email users and 1.4 billion active email accounts worldwide."

The same report suggests that some 183 billion emails were sent each day in 2006 and that wireless email users will grow "from 14 million in 2006, to 228 million in 2010."

http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/metrics/email-statistics.htm

Quick--reflect, then click!

Naomi Baron, author of book (2000) on email and writing, states

“I believe that we are making ourselves into less sophisticated users of language because of computer mediated communication in general, and perhaps, email in particular…..drives us to produce writing and send it off without reflecting.” (Cited in Cook)

What do I think?

Know your audience – one of the basic things we try to teach our students in preparation for writing or presenting a speech

Use internet slang in context (and make it easy for the reader to figure them out!)

My informal findings—my students don’t know all of the text messaging terms

Most of them use a handful of terms when they do IM and send text messages by phone

My big concern: the temporary nature of email (who writes letters anymore?) Email is a great tool to keep in touch with

family, friends and coworkers Instant – we may not build in enough time

for reflection for some messages Most of the time it is very functional –

good for short, quick messages However, many of us cherish old family

letters that help to recapture life in an earlier time. What will our children look at?

War time correspondence

Know someone who is serving in Iraq or Afghanistan? Most soldiers have access to email, and many families are able to keep in touch. Some do IM and video conferencing.

However, is someone going to print out that exchange of messages and put them into three ring binders, to treasure later on?

This is a big contrast with previous wars, when morning mail call was special.

Letters home from Viet Nam Dear America: Letters Home

from Vietnam, compiled entirely from the avalanche of letters and poems received by the Commission for consideration to be included on the Memorial, was published by W. W. Norton & Company.

In all, 208 pieces written by 125 people were chosen for inclusion

In closing Slang varies from generation to generation;

each era has its buzzwords and internet slang is not much different

Language (especially English) has proven to be fairly resilient

Some concerns may be justified about how much time people spend with IM; however, most people use a handful of terms at best

Some IM terms may cross over into common usage f2f but it won’t be the end of English

Twittering is IM to the extreme and probably just another fad (like driving around to find “hot spots”)

Want to brush up on your Internet slang? Go to Netlingo.comNetlingo.com is an online dictionary with thousands of terms relating to the internet and technology (also lists of Smileys and IM terms), and a great resource.