How the Community Uses Language

You want to read my essay? Wow, how nice of you!

With the advent of the Internet and furthermore, of message boards and chat rooms, a enormously widespread language community began to develop. People from all over the world, of all different age groups were suddenly connected. Chat rooms, public journals, and group forums made up the breeding ground for a language showcasing the technological advances of the age as well as the ingenuity of the users of that technology. Much of the “internet language” is made up of shortened or combined words such as “newb” or “blog” and of acronyms which replace commonly used phrases such as “lol” (laugh out loud) or “brb” (be right back). Some of these terms develop simply for brevity, and some develop because there are inventions or innovations that need to be named. It is a development based on the wide-spread values of convenience, brevity, and universality that both coins new words and deteriorates the standards of written English as well as certain values that were formerly common.

Many of the acronyms used on the Internet develop because in on line, textual communication, it is difficult to communicate emotion. In traditional correspondence or spoken conversation, shortcuts are unnecessary because the window for expression is wider. One has the time to make a point clear. In instant messaging, as the title suggests, communication is nearly as quick as spoken conversation. It takes about the same amount of time to type “brb” as is would to speak the words “I'll be right back” on the telephone, but to type out the complete sentence would take far longer, especially for those poor souls who wander the Internet without ever learning to type properly. Regardless, it is a constant, back-and-forth dialog. However, in spoken conversation, our meaning is made clear through facial expression, body language, and vocal tone. Bare text leaves infinite opportunity for misinterpretation without those methods of expression.

The Internet community has compensated for those missing qualities with acronyms and pictorial facial expressions built from punctuation. Emoticons (emotion + icon) can clarify when someone is joking or sorry. There are emoticons for practically every emotion from flirtatious to embarrassed. Acronyms often serve the same purpose. “LOL” lets your correspondent know that you found their statement amusing (even if you did not “laugh out loud” literally). Also, acronyms somewhat make allowances for the lack of the time that was present in traditional, written correspondence. Where one might have written in a letter or an email, “I can't believe that you had the opportunity to meet Mick Jagger,” the instant-messenger correspondent might type, “OMG! u r so lucky!!!” Likewise, “WTF” or “What the f*ck” expresses astonishment or confusion, “IDK” or “I don't know” expresses uncertainty, and “KHUF” or “know how you feel” lets the recipient know that the sender sympathizes. Finally, the ever-useful “JK” guarantees that a statement made in jest will not be taken seriously.

As convenient as this may be, the developing “chat speak”, as many regional dialects do, deteriorates the original English. In common correspondence, capitalization and punctuation are no longer required or even expected. The same is true of postings in personal Internet journals (“blogs”) which are often published in a public forum accessible by virtually anyone with access to the Internet. Proper spelling and grammar have become endangered species in the wilds of the web. This is a major problem because for many young people, the majority of their writing and reading is done on the Internet. What they practice on line may become habit off line as well.

This consequence is not just hypothetical. It actually happens. While having his essay peer-edited in twelfth grade English class, one of my classmates was astounded to find that he had used the single letter “u” in place of the word “you” throughout his paper and replaced “in my opinion” with the acronym “IMO.” Obviously, when brought to his attention, he knew this was unacceptable, but in the haste of typing the first draft of his essay, he had resorted without knowing to the language he utilized with his keyboard for the majority of his time.

The way people communicate on the Internet not only effects the language itself but also the values that were once held. It is commonly accepted that it is a fact that the American culture is a fast-paced one. The rapidity of communication on the Internet is both a product of that sort of culture and possibly a factor in it. Because things may be accomplished at such speed, the standard is to have them completed that quickly. The value of leisure has been lessened. Also, the parental cliché, “Don't speak to strangers,” is often disregarded, although admittedly with some trepidation. Although people are still cautious about with whom they communicate, in chat rooms and message boards, they strike up conversations with people to whom they would never speak were they sitting near each other at Starbucks. Along the same lines, the value of respect or formality has been lessened. In a chat room, anyone may approach anyone with a simple “a/s/l” (age? sex? location?) to serve as an introduction. The fact that one asks these things indicates that the person to whom they are typing could be anyone and anywhere. He or she may be younger or older or near or far, but the casual “hiya” and “how r u?” are still acceptable. One may use the informal chat speak with anyone, except on message boards where it is forbidden or in emails to one's employer or grandmother.

One would not be hard pressed to find others who also oppose the spread of chat speak. As was mentioned, many message boards on the Internet enforce “no chat speak” policies. The reasons given often include the fact that it just makes the writer appear unintelligent or illiterate as well as the difficulty non-native English speakers (or readers/writers) face in deciphering the meaning. A quick Internet search for the term “chat speak” will turn up loads of bloggers (Internet columnists) predicting the downfall of civilization due solely to this Internet language. These restrictions and negative reactions may help to dilute the effects of this deteriorating language, but they cannot change the simple fact that in quick, textual communication, abbreviations, acronyms, and emoticons are the logical option. However, on a large scale, those who oppose chat speak protest simply by making all of their Internet dialog and postings grammatically correct. They will not correct others necessarily, but rather, they hope that their shining example will inspire others. On message boards where the no-chat-speak rule is not enforced, these individuals stand out. They appear to be complete sentences forming full paragraphs with proper punctuation sandwiched between one-liners built with symbols, lowercased i's and u's, and punctuation that is only used to make smiley faces. Unfortunately, no one else seems to catch on.

Nevertheless, while all these shortcuts take away from the original language, the Internet language community has also added to it. With such an innovative and rapidly growing entity as the Internet, it is no surprise that new words arise all of the time. These new words come into being because with so many new programs or capabilities available, it would cause great confusion and misunderstanding if there were not universal terms for these things. So many people use the Internet from all over the world that it just would not be possible to communicate if there was not terminology upon which they were widely agreed. Likewise, old words are given new meanings. For example, cookie, virus, and bookmark are all words that are very familiar in English but when used in context on the Internet, have meanings slightly different from the meaning one may be used to. A cookie is a small file that is downloaded to a computer automatically in order to run a web page more quickly; viruses are programs which infect computers and reek general havoc, and bookmarks are used to mark websites one wants to remember and revisit. Furthermore, old words are blended to become new such as blog, emoticon, and webcast.

Now, the entire world is caught up in a virtual community in which rules and convention in regards to communication are unimportant. New terms are born daily to keep up with constant technological advances, and users, the general populace invent new methods of expression through abbreviation and combination to compensate for the downfalls of rapid, textual communication. Through this process the values of brevity, convenience, and universality are upheld while former values of leisure and propriety and accepted standards are rapidly worn away.