In posting messages on Facebook to friends, or inviting them out for dinner via Facebook inbox message, one is using internet language. While it is a form of a standard language, or a dialect, both parties comprehend the message and the language being used. The language being used is appropriate to the situation. The sender of the message, although it is not in Standard Written English, understands that he has asked a friend out to dinner and the recipient is aware that he is being asked. However, a foreign speaker who has learned English as a second language and has learned Standard Written English may not understand the message. Why is that? How does the use of internet language affect the writing, spelling and other grammatical aspects of the Standard Written English?
Internet language is predominantly found on online blogging sites or social networking sites, such as Facebook. According to Williams and Merten, these sites “involve individuals creating and maintaining personal Internet sites allowing authors and other users to post content, thus creating a personal network” (254).
Williams and Merten define social networking sites and blogging by saying:
Social networking profiles present a unique research opportunity as the process of blogging involves individuals voluntarily posting information about themselves—personal thoughts, feelings, beliefs, activities—in a public arena with unlimited access for anyone with an Internet connection. The amount of personal information contained in a blog is completely dependent on the author's judgment (254).
Personal blogs and sites on which people can broadcast themselves can easily alter others’ opinions. Things done online can change someone else’s view of the blog or site’s host. I have personally discontinued associations with people due to things they have said on a social networking site. Similarly, Gonzales and Hancock report that “the perceptions of others are decreased in computer-mediated interactions” (171). One of my personal pet peeves, even online, is the misuse of words that sound the same but have different meanings, like “there”, “their” and “they’re”, misspelling words and the incorrect use of Standard Written English grammar. For example, phrases such as “they is going” rather than “they are going” drive me crazy. I have not only encountered these mistakes frequently when speaking English to someone, but I have also encountered similar mistakes when speaking with someone in Spanish. Via instant message, I recently told someone “gracias”, or “thank you” in Spanish. To this, I got the reply “tú invitas”. The responder was attempting to say “you’re welcome”, which he did, however, in the wrong context. He told me “you’re welcome” in a way of, for example, offering entrance into your home. The correct response would have been “de nada”. In English, however, we would not encounter this issue since “you’re welcome” is the same for either expressing gratitude or for offering another person access.
Incorrect grammatical use Standard Written English is exhibited by people of many different ages on social networking sites. I have learned this from personal experience and by reading posts and status updates from my friends on Facebook and in text messages. Not only do my twelve-year-old and sixteen-year-old cousins misspell words frequently, omit proper capitalization and punctuation, but I have seen these mistakes often, from a fifty-year-old woman, a sixty-year-old man and from those within those of my own age group as well. With these mistakes in existence so often, blogging or social networking sites would not be an appropriate educational tool.
Although I do not agree, Hourigan and Murray believe social networking sites could be very useful in the educational field.
The potential impact of the blog writing phenomenon upon teaching and learning contexts reveals an important area for consideration for all university educators, and in particular for e-learning practitioners. Today, web users may access a wide variety of media to express themselves and to communicate with others. These may include conventional blog websites such as blogger.com or indeed social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook or Bebo, which continue to integrate blog tools and which also encourage self-expression on the part of the users (209).
The educating of Standard Written English is best learned in person, rather than through distant education. If classes are conducted online, the internet language will integrate with schooling and will slowly demolish Standard Written English. Divergently, regarding online education, Hourigan and Murray reported:
[T]he context in which the actual learning takes place is regarded by many as being paramount to helping the teacher to implement realistic goals throughout the duration of the study (214).
Concerning the younger demographics, though, according to Williams and Merten, “fifty-five percent of teenagers online use and create online social networking profiles” (254). This would make for easy access and communication between the teacher and the student. However, my personal opinion is that education is best completed, when concerning Standard Written English errors, in person, regardless of accessibility.
According to All and Armstrong, there are many ways to use Facebook. To be most successful, they say to do ten things. A few of those ten things are:
1. Update your status
2. Ask your supporters to donate their status
3. Start a cause
4. Promote an event (18-19).
The least spelling, grammar and punctuation errors are found in latter two points. These two topics are more professional than a simple, personal page. A cause typically has an important goal to reach and that goal is more easily attainable when Standard Written English is used rather than a dialect of the English language. An event that is open to anyone with a Facebook account is better understood by their audience in Standard Written English as opposed to a dialect, as well. Alternatively, the most Standard Written English errors I have encountered online on social networking sites have been on Facebook by means of status updates. I have found spelling, capitalization, punctuation and grammatical errors within other aspects of Facebook. However, upon observation and documentation on my own account, I have found that there are approximately 80% fewer mistakes in causes or invitations created by Facebook account holders within a given week, than there are in status updates within that same week.
Page describes status updates as mini-stories. She says:
The stories reported in updates fall outside the literary, conversational, and electronic narrative canon, but are a rich data source for re-examining key concepts in narrative theory, including factors that give rise to perceptions of narrativity (423).
Due to internet language through Facebook status updates, for instance, contain grammatical, spelling and punctual Standard Written English mistakes that are forced into daily vocabulary, omitting and superseding the use of Standard Written English. When writing to someone and saying “u” instead of “you” or updating ones status to say, for example “immago tada apple market” as opposed to “I’m going to go to the apple market” has greatly affected Standard Written English in the educational field. These incorrect uses of punctuation, capitalization, etcetera have found their way into formal written papers and emails to a superior. Emails themselves, whether to a boss, a professor or anyone with whom speech should be formal, can greatly affect the recipient’s perception of the sender. These misuses yield an appearance of less maturity and intelligence than that person may actually have. Page believes that status’ have high importance, despite their toll on Standard Written English. She says:
Given the trend toward using mobile devices (cell phones, e-book readers such as the Kindle) for connecting to Internet services, the importance of small narrative units in online text capable of episodic distribution looks set to continue (440).
I conducted a study to record deviations from Standard Written English among different age groups. This study concludes that Standard Written English errors are exhibited among every age group. Internet language does not affect teenagers or profuse Facebook users solely. In this study, I required that each person send me a twenty word text message, a one hundred word email acting as though I were their boss and they were explaining why they missed a day of work and each person was required to write a letter on paper describing how to make a sandwich. In this study, I analyzed children ages eleven to seventeen, young adults ages eighteen to twenty-five, adults twenty-six to fifty and seniors over the age of fifty-one. The study was conducted in English. From this study, I learned that errors in the text messages came 50% from children, 35% from young adults, 10% from adults and 5% from seniors. In the emails, I found that, again 50% of the mistakes came from children, 35% from young adults, 10% from adults and 5% from seniors. In the letters, however, I discovered that only 35% of the mistakes were made by children, 35% were made by young adults, 20% by adults and 10% by seniors. My study group was more limited than I would have liked for it to be, therefore, affecting my results. The education completion levels among the test subjects were not consistent and the subjects were all from the same area of Missouri, specifically Saint Joseph, therefore, giving me a smaller geographical range as well.
Alongside my experiences with mistakes deviating from the standard language in English, I have also seen spelling mistakes in Spanish on an online social networking site. However, spelling mistakes are the only mistakes I have personally seen, other than the contextual mistake I encountered when I was told “tú invitas”. My inadequate detection of these mistakes is due to my trivial understanding of the language. On Facebook, a native Spanish speaker posted “ola”, in attempt to say “hello” to a friend. However, when “hola” is spoken, the ‘h’ sound is silent, leading this speaker to, in turn, spell the word without an ‘h’ at the beginning. Internet language has not only negatively affected Standard Written English and English speakers, but it has also, the extent to which I am uncertain, affected other standard forms of languages such as Spanish.
In the end, I simply wish for you, my fellow member of society, to be more aware of your language use and misuse. I implore you to represent yourself, online as well as offline, as an adult through your language use, when the situation is formal or public. From this analysis, I would like to be taken simply the knowledge of these misuses and a more in-depth knowledge about representing oneself on an online social networking site updating one’s status or making a post, or when blogging. When writing an important paper for school or in a job, I would like to, with this information, help by saving even a trifling amount of time editing, by avoiding the use of common Standard Written English mistakes found in online situations, rather than later omitting or altering them. Use “you’re” in the first draft, as opposed to “ur”, or “they’re” instead of “theyre”. I would like for this analysis to raise awareness of internet language drifting into and engulfing Standard Written English, with hopes of dismantling the issue of incorrectness being more common than correctness.
Works Cited
All, David, and Jerome Armstrong. “Ten Ways to Use Facebook to Get Your Message Out.”
Politics (Campaigns & Elections) Issue 282 (2009): 18-19. Print.
Gonzales, Amy L., and Jeffrey T. Hancock. “Identity Shift in Computer-Mediated Environments.” Media Psychology. 11.2 (2010): 167-185. Print.
Hourigan, Tríona, and Liam Murray .“Using Blogs to Help Language Students Develop Reflective Learning Strategies: Towards a Pedagogical Framework.” Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 26.2 (2010): 1-17. Print.
Page, Ruth. “Re-examining Narrativity: Small Stories in Status Updates.” Text & Talk 30.4 (2010): 423-444. Print.
Williams, Amanda and Michael Merten. “A Review of Online Social Networking Profiles by
Adolescents: Implications for Future Research and Intervention.” Adolescence 43.170 (2008): 253-274. Print.
Internet language is predominantly found on online blogging sites or social networking sites, such as Facebook. According to Williams and Merten, these sites “involve individuals creating and maintaining personal Internet sites allowing authors and other users to post content, thus creating a personal network” (254).
Williams and Merten define social networking sites and blogging by saying:
Social networking profiles present a unique research opportunity as the process of blogging involves individuals voluntarily posting information about themselves—personal thoughts, feelings, beliefs, activities—in a public arena with unlimited access for anyone with an Internet connection. The amount of personal information contained in a blog is completely dependent on the author's judgment (254).
Personal blogs and sites on which people can broadcast themselves can easily alter others’ opinions. Things done online can change someone else’s view of the blog or site’s host. I have personally discontinued associations with people due to things they have said on a social networking site. Similarly, Gonzales and Hancock report that “the perceptions of others are decreased in computer-mediated interactions” (171). One of my personal pet peeves, even online, is the misuse of words that sound the same but have different meanings, like “there”, “their” and “they’re”, misspelling words and the incorrect use of Standard Written English grammar. For example, phrases such as “they is going” rather than “they are going” drive me crazy. I have not only encountered these mistakes frequently when speaking English to someone, but I have also encountered similar mistakes when speaking with someone in Spanish. Via instant message, I recently told someone “gracias”, or “thank you” in Spanish. To this, I got the reply “tú invitas”. The responder was attempting to say “you’re welcome”, which he did, however, in the wrong context. He told me “you’re welcome” in a way of, for example, offering entrance into your home. The correct response would have been “de nada”. In English, however, we would not encounter this issue since “you’re welcome” is the same for either expressing gratitude or for offering another person access.
Incorrect grammatical use Standard Written English is exhibited by people of many different ages on social networking sites. I have learned this from personal experience and by reading posts and status updates from my friends on Facebook and in text messages. Not only do my twelve-year-old and sixteen-year-old cousins misspell words frequently, omit proper capitalization and punctuation, but I have seen these mistakes often, from a fifty-year-old woman, a sixty-year-old man and from those within those of my own age group as well. With these mistakes in existence so often, blogging or social networking sites would not be an appropriate educational tool.
Although I do not agree, Hourigan and Murray believe social networking sites could be very useful in the educational field.
The potential impact of the blog writing phenomenon upon teaching and learning contexts reveals an important area for consideration for all university educators, and in particular for e-learning practitioners. Today, web users may access a wide variety of media to express themselves and to communicate with others. These may include conventional blog websites such as blogger.com or indeed social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook or Bebo, which continue to integrate blog tools and which also encourage self-expression on the part of the users (209).
The educating of Standard Written English is best learned in person, rather than through distant education. If classes are conducted online, the internet language will integrate with schooling and will slowly demolish Standard Written English. Divergently, regarding online education, Hourigan and Murray reported:
[T]he context in which the actual learning takes place is regarded by many as being paramount to helping the teacher to implement realistic goals throughout the duration of the study (214).
Concerning the younger demographics, though, according to Williams and Merten, “fifty-five percent of teenagers online use and create online social networking profiles” (254). This would make for easy access and communication between the teacher and the student. However, my personal opinion is that education is best completed, when concerning Standard Written English errors, in person, regardless of accessibility.
According to All and Armstrong, there are many ways to use Facebook. To be most successful, they say to do ten things. A few of those ten things are:
1. Update your status
2. Ask your supporters to donate their status
3. Start a cause
4. Promote an event (18-19).
The least spelling, grammar and punctuation errors are found in latter two points. These two topics are more professional than a simple, personal page. A cause typically has an important goal to reach and that goal is more easily attainable when Standard Written English is used rather than a dialect of the English language. An event that is open to anyone with a Facebook account is better understood by their audience in Standard Written English as opposed to a dialect, as well. Alternatively, the most Standard Written English errors I have encountered online on social networking sites have been on Facebook by means of status updates. I have found spelling, capitalization, punctuation and grammatical errors within other aspects of Facebook. However, upon observation and documentation on my own account, I have found that there are approximately 80% fewer mistakes in causes or invitations created by Facebook account holders within a given week, than there are in status updates within that same week.
Page describes status updates as mini-stories. She says:
The stories reported in updates fall outside the literary, conversational, and electronic narrative canon, but are a rich data source for re-examining key concepts in narrative theory, including factors that give rise to perceptions of narrativity (423).
Due to internet language through Facebook status updates, for instance, contain grammatical, spelling and punctual Standard Written English mistakes that are forced into daily vocabulary, omitting and superseding the use of Standard Written English. When writing to someone and saying “u” instead of “you” or updating ones status to say, for example “immago tada apple market” as opposed to “I’m going to go to the apple market” has greatly affected Standard Written English in the educational field. These incorrect uses of punctuation, capitalization, etcetera have found their way into formal written papers and emails to a superior. Emails themselves, whether to a boss, a professor or anyone with whom speech should be formal, can greatly affect the recipient’s perception of the sender. These misuses yield an appearance of less maturity and intelligence than that person may actually have. Page believes that status’ have high importance, despite their toll on Standard Written English. She says:
Given the trend toward using mobile devices (cell phones, e-book readers such as the Kindle) for connecting to Internet services, the importance of small narrative units in online text capable of episodic distribution looks set to continue (440).
I conducted a study to record deviations from Standard Written English among different age groups. This study concludes that Standard Written English errors are exhibited among every age group. Internet language does not affect teenagers or profuse Facebook users solely. In this study, I required that each person send me a twenty word text message, a one hundred word email acting as though I were their boss and they were explaining why they missed a day of work and each person was required to write a letter on paper describing how to make a sandwich. In this study, I analyzed children ages eleven to seventeen, young adults ages eighteen to twenty-five, adults twenty-six to fifty and seniors over the age of fifty-one. The study was conducted in English. From this study, I learned that errors in the text messages came 50% from children, 35% from young adults, 10% from adults and 5% from seniors. In the emails, I found that, again 50% of the mistakes came from children, 35% from young adults, 10% from adults and 5% from seniors. In the letters, however, I discovered that only 35% of the mistakes were made by children, 35% were made by young adults, 20% by adults and 10% by seniors. My study group was more limited than I would have liked for it to be, therefore, affecting my results. The education completion levels among the test subjects were not consistent and the subjects were all from the same area of Missouri, specifically Saint Joseph, therefore, giving me a smaller geographical range as well.
Alongside my experiences with mistakes deviating from the standard language in English, I have also seen spelling mistakes in Spanish on an online social networking site. However, spelling mistakes are the only mistakes I have personally seen, other than the contextual mistake I encountered when I was told “tú invitas”. My inadequate detection of these mistakes is due to my trivial understanding of the language. On Facebook, a native Spanish speaker posted “ola”, in attempt to say “hello” to a friend. However, when “hola” is spoken, the ‘h’ sound is silent, leading this speaker to, in turn, spell the word without an ‘h’ at the beginning. Internet language has not only negatively affected Standard Written English and English speakers, but it has also, the extent to which I am uncertain, affected other standard forms of languages such as Spanish.
In the end, I simply wish for you, my fellow member of society, to be more aware of your language use and misuse. I implore you to represent yourself, online as well as offline, as an adult through your language use, when the situation is formal or public. From this analysis, I would like to be taken simply the knowledge of these misuses and a more in-depth knowledge about representing oneself on an online social networking site updating one’s status or making a post, or when blogging. When writing an important paper for school or in a job, I would like to, with this information, help by saving even a trifling amount of time editing, by avoiding the use of common Standard Written English mistakes found in online situations, rather than later omitting or altering them. Use “you’re” in the first draft, as opposed to “ur”, or “they’re” instead of “theyre”. I would like for this analysis to raise awareness of internet language drifting into and engulfing Standard Written English, with hopes of dismantling the issue of incorrectness being more common than correctness.
Works Cited
All, David, and Jerome Armstrong. “Ten Ways to Use Facebook to Get Your Message Out.”
Politics (Campaigns & Elections) Issue 282 (2009): 18-19. Print.
Gonzales, Amy L., and Jeffrey T. Hancock. “Identity Shift in Computer-Mediated Environments.” Media Psychology. 11.2 (2010): 167-185. Print.
Hourigan, Tríona, and Liam Murray .“Using Blogs to Help Language Students Develop Reflective Learning Strategies: Towards a Pedagogical Framework.” Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 26.2 (2010): 1-17. Print.
Page, Ruth. “Re-examining Narrativity: Small Stories in Status Updates.” Text & Talk 30.4 (2010): 423-444. Print.
Williams, Amanda and Michael Merten. “A Review of Online Social Networking Profiles by
Adolescents: Implications for Future Research and Intervention.” Adolescence 43.170 (2008): 253-274. Print.
English 301 - advanced composition
Internet Language
Major Project #1
21 October 2010
Use these to your advantage. There is nothing that says you must play with the game's default settings. satta king
ReplyDeleteBallroom dancing and even ballet are extremely effective at helping football players get an extra edge on the field.satta king
ReplyDeletesatta king
play bazaar satta kingIn addition to saving energy and money, solar panels have a lot of benefits that can improve your residence.
ReplyDeleteDo not use all capital letters and double exclamation points in your Internet marketing. These make your brand seem childish and abrasive, yelling at the consumer rather than communicating a message that they will find interesting. You want to offer the consumer something they want in a way that they will want to interact with, not simply making a few words of your marketing message overpower the content they are trying to read on a particular site where your message appears. Satta King Want To Start Internet Marketing? Try Using These Tips! Play Bazaar
ReplyDelete