Webspeak/Netspeak has a great impact on our daily lives. Since the technology is so prominent in many peoples daily lives, most are dependent on their devices. With using these devices, abbreviations and linguistic shortcuts become normative to us even in daily speech. Personally, I think it is silly to use “LOL” or “OMG” during a face to face conversation, I have however, heard it PLENTY of times from friends and even coworkers. I am also a part of facebook “resale” groups where members can post pictures of items they are wishing to persuade someone to purchase. Essentially, a facebook craigslist. Well, when I first joined abbreviations such as, “EUC” (excellent used condition) and “PPU” (pending pick up) were completely foreign to me. My mother, who introduced me to the site will ask me if I saw that “blazer from Ann Taylor that was in EUC for PU in Germantown?” IN A NORMAL CONVERSATION? It takes me a moment to process the abbreviations and put together what she was saying. Tiring, really.
I agree with Baron, “The goal of an IM conversation is to get your message across..not produce an entry for an essay contest.” Exactly. IN AN IM/SMS MESSAGE. More and more people are talking in this “code” language in daily practice. Most accept this slanderous form of communication, but I however, do not support this system. In a daily conversation, you should present yourself well and when this Webspeak language is introduced to daily conversation, the presentation of the person using this communication form, does not seem presentable/professional to me.
Much life myself, Thurlow thinks texting is exaggerated and gaining much attention. I also do not understand and therefore have mixed feelings about the entire texting domain. I would much rather have a phone conversation, using normative language to get my point or message across. I hope that this “upcoming” language does not last for long, because we may have some really confused people who will need to adapt to learn this “new” language.
I also agree with Baron’s view that IM is intended to get the point to your receiver not get them to view you as a well known writer. The challenge is that to a certain audience the use of breivty is not acceptable, people want details. IM is not the place for details, books, journals, and encylopeidias are the places that we should depend on more formal and in depth content.
Thank you for the post.
I must admit, this particular blog thread has really opened my eyes to the popularity of Webspeak in every day life! I have really never experienced people saying things like “LOL” or “IDK” in regular conversation. My mother will occasionally say things like “LOL” to me, but she is generally being funny. I thought that the idea behind text message acronyms taking over the english language was a myth. Now that I have read a good amount of these blogs, I see that it is actually happening more often than I originally thought. I definitely agree with you that people should present themselves well and intelligently in face to face conversations. It is beneficial in many ways. After all, if I consistently spoke in Netspeak and abbreviations at work, even in conversations with co-workers, I would probably not be one of my boss’ top picks for a promotion!
I really appreciate how passionate you are about this! In high school, I was “that” person who corrected my friends’ grammar all the time… needless to say, texting got on my nerves so bad, and I made sure to actually type out everything I was saying, and even capitalize what needed to be capitalized (which was so time-consuming!). I’ve mellowed out QUITE a bit, but I do think our society has lost respect for “proper” English. Using netspeak in real life is just another indication of this.
I am part of the Dyer and Obion County Resale Groups on Facebook. When I first started using it, there were a few abbreviations I didn’t understand. Like when someone said “bump” I didn’t know that was used to get your post back up to the top of the newsfeed. The other one that is used a lot is WTB which means “want to buy” so you can post what item you are looking for. The only problem I have with the resale is when people start fighting through comments about who is going to buy the item. I usually had to just say whoever comments first gets the item and that if the sale falls through then the next person gets it. I had a little bit of luck selling things on the resale, but most of the time my stuff would just sit so I haven’t tried to sell anything on there in a while.
I think people are drawn to IM/SMS because it’s so informal. I don’t think it’s necessary to be so formal with it. We wouldn’t expect people to be so formal in their interactions with family/friends. When people become more comfortable with someone, their style of communication becomes more relaxed. This is true for IM/SMS as well. When I’m communicating with someone I don’t know very well, my style of communication in both face to face and IM/SMS can be stiff and formal, but eventually both parties become relaxed and comfortable. Misspelled words and horrible grammar isn’t pleasant to see or hear, but abbreviations, if the person knows what you’re talking about, aren’t a big issue or the deterioration of the English language in my opinion.
I understand your proclivity to write professionally. I used to be incredibly thorough in my text messages, so there was very rarely a difference between my formal writing. I still mostly adopt traditional grammar and sentence structure to my messages,but have been much more lenient over the years. It depends who I am speaking with. if it is a close friend, the rules bend and the words shorten. If I am contacting a coworker or an acquaintance, I try to construct my messages a little more carefully. If I write an email, I try to be as professional as possible.