Based on the readings between Baron’s findings and Davison’s summaries, I believe that the same basic message is stressed. The style and language used on the internet resemble a deformed version of modern English. This may be an attempt to save time in blogs or chats between two or more individuals. While successful in saving time, it has had repercussions on English outside of the internet. For example, some people use text lingo even when speaking to each other face-to-face.
Humor has a significant role in today’s world. According to Baron, humor can be used to hide or lower someone’s stress level. Some people use it whenever possible in order to possibly form new friendships or maintain long-lasting ones. For instance, as Baron stated, some one used their blog to describe the library as the “bowels of hell”. The common use of humor can help individuals to see what other people think about a certain place, person, or life event. However, as expressed in Davidson’s findings, those jokes can be very offensive towards other people, especially when profanity is used within those jokes. The possibility of people taking jokes the wrong way must be taken into consideration before posting something that can be seen by everyone with an account. Otherwise, disastrous results, such as friendships ending and lifelong hatreds beginning, could easily follow.
Everybody does not react the same to what people say or think, and it has to do with the type of person that is reading and what kind of background they have. For example, if someone is friends with people from their church on facebook, they might refrain from using certain types of languages. Also, there might be certain relationships where one might feel more comfortable talking a certain way or joking in a certain way. We have to definitely choose and pick the types of languages we use.
Can you expand on what you mean by a “deformed version of modern English”? If language is always changing and evolving, how can we say what is deformed? What is the social purpose of away messages/Facebook status updates/memes? How does that purpose inform what language style is appropriate?
I have to agree. To me, deformed means its an abnormality without function, I believe what is happening is an evolution, change that is part of adaptation. The adaptation is a result of our adoption of computers, so we have changed the way we communicate to be more efficient to the platform. The platform is CMC.
Deformed version was probably a bad choice of words. Maybe abbreviated would be a better term to use.
I like your analysis on humor. Regardless of the channel, I think humor is always a good way to reduce stress level. Everyone needs a good laugh once in a while. I think one of the reasons why we might see increased examples of humor online is for the same reason we see more memes: CMC communication is fast, easy to replicate and affords us the opportunity to share information with much larger audiences.
I think it is easier to ignore or skim over the memes that aren’t funny to you personally. I get so confused when people post negative comments about how a meme or post affected them. When I am not interested in a post after a few words or looking at the joke a few times, I just scroll up or down.
Humor is definitely a way to bring someone’s spirits up in social media. I have seen a lot of people who are down and out and if someone IM’s them with a smiley face or something humorous it will absolutely brighten their day. A lot of people try to post funny comments and emoticons which can sometimes be tricky. It can be humorous or attitude humorous (smarty pants). A joke here and there never hurt anyone.