Effects of Online Lingo To Our Generation

chee_z2007 · 11-20-2003, 08:29 PM

I'm doing a research paper for english on the effects our online language that our generation has devised with IM, email, and text messaging. I was wondering what you guys thought of this subject. I might qoute you in the paper.
So makeit good

please?
thanks
joey

GMartin2R · 11-21-2003, 01:15 AM

i dont know that it has really had that much effect, at least in the arena of the english language. the net shorthand stuff only appears in written word. but on the whole the net and im/email/ message boards (e.g. this one) have opened the doors up to much mroe interational contact with definitely isnt a bad thing.

dont know of that was what you were looking for but its' the best i can do unless you elaborate on the topic a bit more.

Jay42 · 11-21-2003, 08:29 AM

I will share with you a recent private moment between me and my wife.

Influenced by online lingo, I said "I heart you" to her.

ro234 · 11-21-2003, 08:43 AM

It's had a fairly disastrous effect on grammar and punctuation. Just take Martin's post above as an example. No capital letters or apostrophes, and either short sentences or long ones without enough commas or semicolons to denote the sub-clauses. I used to do these things too, until I realised it was stupid and it really isn't too much effort to keep applying normal linguistic conventions in online writing.

Another obvious effect is the need for compression, particularly in text messages and IM conversations due to the character limits imposed. This has led to the omission of letters, particularly vowels, and alternative shorter spellings such as 'wud' for 'would'. Also note the substitution of numbers for words, for example 2 and 4.

I think this has had many radical effects on language, all of which are detrimental. The language has not developed positively as a result of these changes, the existing conventions have just been ignored. This will inevitably lead to a deterioration in language as a whole, spoken and written, as people think it is more acceptable to ignore the technical structures of language.

I do English too, and I think this is a great topic to write about, I would love to do an essay about it because there is so much material. Good luck with it. However, I wouldn't quote any of what I've just said, I'm not an authoritative source. You should find some quotes by respected critics on the subject (although I suppose not much will have been written about it yet).

chee_z2007 · 11-21-2003, 02:31 PM

thanks guys.
Ro- if i would quote you it would be in an informal way. I'm planning on using people's opinions and cases of spelling or gramatical mistakes they attribute to online typing in the essay (well, as of right now i am).
thanks
joey

Blaster Master · 11-24-2003, 07:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chee_z2007

I'm doing a research paper for english on the effects our online language that our generation has devised with IM, email, and text messaging. I was wondering what you guys thought of this subject. I might qoute you in the paper.
So makeit good

please?
thanks
joey

It promotes bad spelling, and bad grammar, and of course the use of annoying acronyms.

netspeak sucks

Jay Tea · 11-25-2003, 07:18 PM

grammer sux

u r a dork

SccHarpGirl · 11-25-2003, 07:56 PM

That was me up there.

Speaking of effects of online lingo, my sister can't type a single sentence online without slang, much less communicate an intelligent idea

i luv u monica
Noelle

Jay Tea · 11-25-2003, 08:10 PM

On a more serious note, if you do something enough, it generally becomes a habit. Habitually writing poorly will eventually hurt you.

God's Jedi · 11-26-2003, 01:42 AM

The funniest thing is that me and all my firends I talk to online have amazingly large vocabularies and use proper grammar when we speak. But the people I know who almost never use the 'net speak horrifically. We are in the south, so bad grammar is accepted by most. Therefore, I believe your english usage has more to do with where you live, what kind of people you around, and that general stuff, more than it has to do with your time using 'netspeak'.

ro234 · 11-26-2003, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by God's Jedi

The funniest thing is that me and all my firends I talk to online have amazingly large vocabularies and use proper grammar when we speak.

That amuses me greatly, since you say that you use proper grammar, yet at the beginning of the same sentence you make one of the most elementary of all grammatical mistakes - 'me and all my friends have'. Try taking out the 'and all my friends' and you have 'me have'. Think about it. I suppose 'firends' is excusable as a genuine typo, since I do taht all teh tmie.

psalm63adam · 11-26-2003, 02:30 PM

I'm sure that we've all lost some serious IQ points by using computer lingo.

Jonular · 11-26-2003, 03:01 PM

I know three people in real life that I talk to online. None of them, thank God, use annoying acronyms and stuff. Two of them, however, skip the capitalazation of letters, which isn't the biggest problem with the "online lingo".

Does anybody actually write in netspeak on their schoolwork and the like?

~Jon

chee_z2007 · 11-26-2003, 08:20 PM

Jon-
Where I got this research paper idea from was when I was talking to a girl in school and she was telling me how she made mistakes when she is typing papers up for school like putting newayz for anyways or airwayz for airwayz. Little things like that.

I tend to see net speak used with girls more than guys. I personally find the acronym LOL extremely annoying and have never used it for it's reason. The only net speak I use really is BRB because I'm usually in a hurry to get where ever I'm going.

Thanks for all the responses it should help with my paper
joey

Jay Tea · 11-26-2003, 08:36 PM

There was actually a flap a while back about whether teachers should mark students off for using net-speak on homework assignments.