There are many different ways we communicate nowadays: e-mail, text messaging, video calls, emojis, etc. In fact, many believe that we are getting lazy with the way we write. In everyday life, we wouldn’t address something formally unless it’s for work or a school project. Yet, we would still break the rules nonetheless. Now I want to tell you something, there is something that is changing the way we communicate, and that’s called internetese. But what is internetese you may ask. That’s what I’m going to explain, and why it’s getting more popular.
The internet era. The future of communication. Many people nowadays use the internet daily do communicate to others and share their thoughts. that great, exempt typing online often differs that what we might write or say.
The main definition of internetese is an informal way of communicating, typically online, where the rules and regulations of grammar and punctuation is ignored. Neologism refers to newly formed, or formed of existing words. They are words that have various, or new meanings. More on that later.
First and foremost, there are four key aspects when it comes to internetese: vocabulary, Orthography, grammar, and style. Let’s start discussing about vocabulary.
Let’s start talking about vocabulary, or better known, vocab. See, where’re already off to a great start! Vocabulary is the body of words that make up the English language. The core part of English literature and communication. Without vocab, there wouldn’t be an English language. Thus, vocab is crucial.
Vocabulary also evolved through prediction. More often that not, we get predictions and assumptions of our next words based on what we’ve typed. For example, if you intend of typing ‘how are you?’, the computer may guess right after typing ‘how’. We’ve basically teached machines not how to communicate, but what to communicate.
Moreover, many words in the English language have several meanings, and some of them come about. Not all words we say has an intended meaning, and sometimes it refers to the situation one is discussing.
For example, take a overrated famous brand: Gucci. Everyone’s heard of Gucci, am I right. Immedialy, images of wealth, fashion, and designers bags pop up in one’s mind. However, Gucci also has another intended meaning, which can also mean cool, fashion, or wealthy.
Another example is the word sick. Typically, this words describes someone who is ill or feeling unwell. In slang terms, sick refers to something being cool or excellent.
In addition, there is also Orthography, which is changes in abbreviations, dropped letters, and numbers. With the internet nowadays, we tend to spell words differently, or use different symbols differently as their interpret meaning.
For example, some people use numbers to replace letters.This is known as leetspeak, and it means using numbers that can be ‘identified’ as letters. For example, a could be @, E could be 3, Skate could be SK8, etc.
There are also changes in letters, in which sometimes letters are dropped or left our for convince. When one is communicating online, it’s drastically different from talking in person, or in a formal email. One might spell words differently, like “u” instead of “you”. It’s all to common nowadays, and we tend to not notice it. After all, who’s going to follow grammar rules in informal writing?
Next up is grammar, and boy has everything changed.
To start, there is punctuation. For example, many people, including myself tend to put quotation marks on certain words to emphasize their meaning. This doesn’t mean someone is saying something, it just exaggerated the words and tells people that the word could be ironic, or a different meaning.
For example, some people may say technology is “hurting” our society and our interactions with other people. Hurting would be in quotations because it’s the main topic, and the person is debating where it is true or not.
Dropped letters and punctuation is another way of communicating. For example, some users might type ‘didnt’ instead of ‘didn’t’ or ‘youre’ instead of ‘you’re’. Since it’s an informal style of language, it doesn’t really matter.
Finally, we have style, which is similar to grammar.
Capitals are a key aspect of internetese, and it’s no wonder why. We’re just too lazy to capatilize letters. Like who want’s to hold the shift key and capitalize the first letter in a sentence and proper places, nouns, etc? Despite it being an easy task, many view it as a tedious process. By not capitalizing letters, we view one’s personality as lazy and casual.
We can also change our tone of language not only through word choice, but also through excess or lack of punctuation. Continuing with my previous points, punctuation can alter a way a thought is written. For example, periods convey a serious tone, while an ongoing sentence conveys an excess of ideas and a casual tone.
Also, how could a forget to mention about words being in ALL CAPS. ALL CAPS convey a feeling of anger and frustration. That’s why you shouldn’t TYPE LIKE THIS unless you’re mad at someone or like reading big blocks of text.
Users can also capitalize more letters To Emphasize And Grab A Reader’s Attention. It’s mainly used for emphasize and for effect.
One thing before I wrap up, is that in addition to the PowerPoint and the lesson in class, Tom Scott has a video titled “why typing like this is sometimes okay.” This video outlines many things in this post, and I recommend you check him out.
In conclusion, people have drastically changed the way users communicate online, through abbreviations, dropped letters, punctuation, and much more. And while I see this as a ‘easier’ way to communicate, it might also mean that grammar rules might lose their meaning. While it’s fun and easier to communicate in the ‘modern’ way, it’s important to retain the structure of English literature and what that has brought us.
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