Greetings, and happy Superbowl Sunday (which happens to be 2 days before Super Tuesday). Sorry for the delayed post, it's been a busy time around here. Anyway, getting down to business...
This week's readings studied the use of language in CMC and how it differs when compared to FtF. TLT's chapter on language focused on several primary issues, including resistance to new forms of internet-based language, or 'netspeak'; the existence of speech communities, both in society and online; the dominance of English as a language on the internet; and finally, netspeak as a language.
TLT opened their chapter with the claim that many media outlets believe that new technologies have been dramatically changing languages, to the point where they are destroying proper language. TLT argue that language cannot be destroyed by webspeak or any other type of language because it is, in essence, its own language. TLT argue that there is nothing inherent in language that makes one language better or worse than any other language, rather it is a matter of social convention that some languages are looked down upon.
TLT next looked at dominance of English as a language on the internet and the existence of the digital divide between rich and poor nations. While English no longer maintains its complete dominance over the web, it still accounts for over 35% of the websites on the internet. Other developed countries are catching up to English speaking countries in terms of web-content, however there is still a disproportionate amount of web-content in English. This has led to some resistance to the dominance of English, as some people feel that smaller, less well known languages need to be protected from an ever-shrinking world.
Finally, there is netspeak and netlingo... TLT discusses the growth of netlingo in the English language. netlingo includes but is not limited to abbreviating words or using acronyms (TLT, FtF, CMC, etc.) lack of capitalization and punctuation and using word blends like netlingo. also, spelling isnt concidered too bee improtant. (Basically, this entire paragraph). Netspeak is very similar, only it is used more often in synchronous CMC, like our discussion last Wednesday.
That's enough of TLT, on to Walther... (I'll keep it brief)
Walther focused on emoticons, which we went over in pretty good detail last week. The study was fairly interesting, so I suggest you read it... basic argument is that CMC lacks verbal cues, therefore we use emoticons :)
Now for some fun:
Acronyms so you don't feel like an idiot when in a chat room
What if the internet were to disappear tomorrow, oh wait, it did last week
Finally... we're almost there...
Questions for possible discussion:
1) How has internet jargon (webspeak) spread to the mainstream?
2) TLT also argue that people using one language tend to organize around each other, forming a speech community. This works fairly easily FtF, but is it possible in CMC?
3) Do you see the dominance of English on the web as a problem in a globalizing world? If so, how can it be combated?
4) Anything I may have missed that you feel was important from the readings.
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5 comments:
Questions for possible discussion:
1) These popular forms of acronyms have simply spread to mainstream because they are acronyms for phrases used a lot online. Everyone ‘laughs’, so having a common way of expressing that makes sense. Likewise, everyone has to say goodbye at one point, so it makes sense for there to be ways to abbreviate the goodbyes. Similarly, in different online communities, different acronyms and web jargons are created. For example, in online games, a lot of users say gg or gj to represent good game or good job respectively. These commonly used terms have spread throughout these communities because they are used so regularly. In this same fashion, other acronyms and web jargon such as those described in TLT (lol, brb, asl, etc.) have spread so rapidly in all forms of CMC because they are the most popular phrases which no one likes to have to type out entirely when being used.
2I believe it is entirely possible in CMC. People still relate to each other using language; and certain language norms are established as we observed in our online chat exercise. In any case, it tends to happen more, because CMC can be so limited. Users tend to stick to terms that are fairly neutral or abundantly used to avoid miscommunication. As a result, I believe very limited speech communities are formed.
3) TLT state that the internet is really a large barrier between developed countries and less developed countries. I believe this is very true. As English dominates the internet, a lot of businesses from other countries are impeded to becoming a part of the internet Ebay/Amazon type markets because of language barriers. Even though it is something that is changing, the English speaking companies have a huge leap ahead of the rest. Nonetheless, I feel that many companies, such as Ebay and now Facebook, are seeing foreign markets as a worthwhile investment and have set up their websites in other countries with the mother tongue. I think this is really helping to combat the inequality problem.
4) It might be interesting to evaluate how internet jargon has become part of FtF communication. CMC is a big part of the percentage makeup of how our generation communicates to friends. We all spend a while sending emails, instant messaging or Facebooking our friends. As a result, a lot of the internet jargon has filtered into our FtF communication. I have friends who say O.M.G. Even though they say it somewhat in a joking manner, it still expresses how they feel. I have seen this occur in contemporary movies, such as ‘Bewitched’ with Will Ferrel in 2005, where he says, “like OMG! where is my dog”.
Likewise, I have friends who will end their telephone conversations with ‘lylas’ or ttyl.
1) The internet is made up of interrelated networks... so many online users are chating with other online users to where computer jargon spreads like the black death. In fact, I'm not much of an online chatter myself, but discussing so many acronyms in class has made me feel out of the loop, to point that I feel I must relieve myself of my ignorance and figure out what everything means so I can communicate better online.
2) Honestly, I don't see many possibilities, if any, where people use language to form a speech community via the internet. I can only imagine this for those who are in a game room, or some interest related chatroom where people's discussions follow along the same lines. Like how Kassandra mentioned how online game users use "gg" or "gj". Or back when Lord of the Rings came out and I was a huge fanatic, I would follow up with online bulletins.. where people always referred to Lord of The Rings as "LOTR". But is that really enough to form an online community? I mean, the internet brings people together from all over the world- where everyone has their own way of speaking, or slang. People are constantly switching over chats. I just don't see it realistically occurring.
3) Here again I take the other stance. So the internet is a barrier for developing countries. Key word- "developing countries"- where there just aren't as many online users. Furthermore, English is THE globally dominating language. Take India for example, most people don't know that there, like in many third world countries, the majority of the people speak English. In fact, it is hard to get around if you can't.
The Internet is very "American". It's no wonder why English is dominating. On the brighter side, this just creates plenty of opportunity for people in developing countries to tap into any market or industry, because of the few resources, services, and goods already available via the internet in their mother tongue. Time and time again I contemplate over markets and businesses I can tap into online to make some big bucks.. but then I feel discouraged because there are so many users out there, just like me, who have played it out.
i was looking up statistics on languages and the internet and I found this really good article:
http://proquest.umi.com.libproxy.usc.edu/pqdweb?did=723625841&sid=3&Fmt=3&clientId=5239&RQT=309&VName=PQD
you may need to do remote access from USC library page before you enter it though.
It's really interesting, it tells you all the language features of google and other search engines.
1) My roomate's and I were actually having a conversation about this over the weekend and it started because one of my roomates had mentioned that they were beginning to accept "Weblingo" on the SAT essay. I couldn't find any evidence as to whether this is true or not, but I think it is remarkable that these phrases used online are becoming a regular part of our language- on and offline. I think these acronyms first appeared online as a result of their convenience (typing 4 capital letters vs. 4 words). Now, I think the trend has traveled offline (in addition to online) since they have become so widely used and recognized in online communication.
Nice post..it was fun to read. I esp. thought it was clever of you to mispell words in the last few paragraphs.
I think webspeak does have a growing presence in mainstream speech. My friends and I sometimes slip in internet jargon in our FTF conversations, but we intentionally do it--knowing that we're using internet lingo. Maybe that's the thing--webspeak is becoming a part of mainstream conversation, but in a way where people are still aware of the language differences. Webspeak is not so integrated in our day to day conversations where it's naturally spoken outside of the digital realm as part of regular FTF conversation.
As for whether CMC communication can develop speech communities..I think it is possible. In fact, I believe such communities exist already, depending on different websites that attract a certain type/group of people. For example, CMC in art forums (www.deviantart.com) is very stylized and animated--people make up their own slang words and describe their actions (similar to what we experienced in chat rooms). In addition, I'm sure particular online gamers have their own set of webspeak as well.
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