Webspeak, ah webspeak... What is there to say about it... Sure I put dots at the end of every sentence... yeah usually 3 of them... 4-5 if i'm mad at you... Yeah it's part of my personal "internet" lingo... And you know what I don't care if you make fun of it... I rarely use ROFL, LMAO, or OMG (cause OMG it's so freakin' lame)... I don't understand using short for text messages either, although it never fails daily I get texts with something like "u gng tonight SNP DG is gon rule!" This sort of thing makes me angry... It's like ok, I get that you don't want to do the whole 20 minute conversation for a simple question like "Are you going to the snoop dog Concert tonight it's going to rule!"... If you are so lazy that you can't even type that out, well, then just call me for the love of God... It's the begining of the end of proper English as well as spelling, granted Im a horrible speller, but that right there is proof of how this is ruining the world. I am 1st generation "tech" person... I remember when there was no world wide web, Bill Gates was poor and windows was based out of dos... Yes ... Dos... For those of you over the age of 25 you may or may not know what I'm talking about... ok ok ok ... no not that one... Dos didn't do Oregon trail when you were 5 on the stupid apple's ... Dos was IBM based... you know C:/blah... anyway... I think this article makes very good points but at the same time it looks past the need for conventional methods of speaking... Whats the need? Why do we need correct spelling? Why does someone need to write everything out all the way? (aside from not pissing me off, ladies you know what I'm talking about) Why is it needed? So some a-hole can commend you on how well you can speak a language? If this was the case we would all still be saying "thou" and "to whom" It's called evolution... Language evolves just as we have... If old people can't keep up well thats not our fault now is it...
Maybe they should just chill out and understand times are going to change....
That is Izzle... Fo Shizzle.. From...
-D-Whizzle...
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/how-one-security-firm-tracked-anonymousand-paid-a-heavy-price.ars/1
ReplyDeleteThere is ur proof that language means nothing... a 16 year old girl RUINED a mans life by hacking into his "Security based internet company" and POWNING HIM...
Read the chat logs... they can hardly speak correct english but they are smart enough to take down multiple websites as well as mastercard... So All you English teachers/majors... you may want to start looking for better employment...
-Wizzle out...
Web speak is probably (hopefully) something people do only when they are on the net posting messages, the lazy way to do things. I wonder though, if those people visualize the words in their heads as web speak words as they are talking? I wonder if the words "u gng tonight SNP DG is gon rule!" goes through their heads instead of "Are you going to the snoop dog Concert tonight it's going to rule!" when they're talking to someone in person? I wonder if those who are heavy into web speak on the net speak that way verbally...I wonder if 20 years from now instead of offering ESL (English as a Second Language) they will be offer WSSL (Web Speak as a Second Language)? All those English teachers/majors might be able to change careers.
ReplyDeleteYour post made me think of a dinner i was at a couple months ago with my sister, her fiance, and our two families. We're all originally from new jersey so we were talking about the show "jersey shore" and talking about how hilarious it was. Suddenly my sister's fiance's mother asked what DTF means and all of us who are 22-30 got dead quite and didnt know what to say. My mom who learned what DTF meant a couple days earlier (she begged me to tell her) leaned over and whispered it in her ear. The conversation topic was changed immediately.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post. The part that stood out to me was your additional comment on your post. Language means something....even if it is webspeak. The audience, context, education ect...determines the language use on the internet. I thought Daniel's comment to your post was really interesting also because of what people are saying in their heads while they are texting. It brings up the question of webspeak being verbal or written and which one of these it is really corrupting. (probably both)
ReplyDeleteOMGGGGGG! You went hard on this post. Although you made some valid points about webspeak we must realize that times has change and with that change brought about different language. I didn't know rather to laugh or cry when reading this post. Oh btw I like your comment on my post. lol
ReplyDeleteOne thing that your post hits on is what scholars call "language ideology," or basically what we think about our language. So the idea that there is "good" or "bad" language is a valuer judgment. In practical terms, if I understand your meaning, then the language was "good" in that we are communicating. But as Mandy's comment shows, sometimes understanding is not the same thing as "appropriate." So you can understand webspeak, but do you think it is appropriate to use in a given situation?
ReplyDeleteI love everyone's comments... To Kris...
ReplyDeleteUsing the same logic there are situations where saying nothing at all is the best choice of reason. Now if someone cannot do this that is their own prerogative... For example, I made my blog subject OMG WTF, Sure thats nothing but a bunch of letters thrown together, that technically I can't get in trouble for using. BUT to everyone reading that has half a _____ they understand what I am saying, just as I'm sure everyone here understood the statement I just made. The majority of speak is visual or body language, well when speaking over the internet it's all mind speak. If someone can understand the way my mind works when I say something they will quickly be able to read between the lines and see what the real meaning of my statements would be. I think this is where a lot of people who don't fully understand webspeak tend to get angry or not understand a otherwise simple comment. I would however say that webspeak could be used in any situation, but that doesn't mean that it is appropriate, Kinda like staying quiet when a Drill Sargent screams a question in your face you know not to answer it or it's your ass, same principal. At the same time when someone is saying something over the internet it is unfiltered. This brings out the truth in what people mean, I think the world has become so sensitive that the truth means nothing now... people would rather lie than say how they feel because they don't want to hurt someone's feelings or make a situation uncomfortable. This is not how the internet works and I believe more people should be more honest with their opinions and not hold back as much as they do. Truth is a very powerful thing, and I am a firm believer that people should use it more often, note that that doesn't mean ALL THE TIME.
-Whizzle izzle