language and the internet

[Count Duckula]

Here is paper so far. I'm not happy with it. I feel like I'm just listing information after a while and not analyzing. The Writing Center's not helping, and my friends aren't being honest with me. Grr. <_<

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At a first glance, the Ironworks Forum looks like just another stop on the Internet. Boasting over 13,000 members since its conception in 1996, this computer gaming hub educates and entertains scions and strategists from Argentina to Zimbabwe and everywhere in between. Culture at Ironworks is so diverse that Dan Huling, webmaster of the Ironworks forum, put the following clause into the site’s Rules and Regulations page: “No targeting of another user by harassing or giving unwarranted attention to or attacking ones race, gender, ethnicity or country. Also, respect each person's views and questions--this includes attacks on NEW users” (1). However, forum moderators often use this clause to ban people from the forums who “come here specifically to be an idiot,…and piss people off, then we're more than happy to throw you out with the garbage, no questions asked” (Memnoch 6).

Farther down the information superhighway lies the Lurker Lounge, home to another computer gaming website and forum. Also around since 1996, the Lounge carries a population equally as diverse as Ironworks, yet much smaller, with only 1500 registered forum members. Unlike Ironworks, the Lurker Lounge maintains a set of strict rules about posting messages to its online message boards. The moderators at the Lounge “do not mind spelling or grammatical errors...we do not mind typos from anyone either. However, we do not appreciate '|337 5|o33|<' or any unnecessary shortenings of English words…If you do not follow this rule, you will be flamed or ignored completely” (Elric 1).

The need for the Lounge’s stringent clause in their forum policies reflects a mode of speech existent since popular public Internet consumption, using numerous grammar and spelling shortcuts as seen here:



This mode of speech is known throughout the Internet as Netspeak. TechWeb.com defines Netspeak as “the vocabulary associated with the concepts, functions and features of the Internet” (1). However, Netspeak has grown to encompass new ways of writing online and offline, affecting not only communication but school education as well. Is Netspeak simply a product of user laziness, or could it be considered a new dialect or jargon, or even a new language altogether?

Internet culture seems to foster shorthand. Text messaging programs such as America Online Instant Messenger service allow users instantaneous transmission of text, be it from different rooms in a house or different countries across the globe. The speed of messages is often referred to as “typing at the speed of thought” (Finn 2). Text messaging has even spread to cellular phones where, for a fee, users can “IM” one another at prices ranging from a penny a letter to a quarter a word. However, there is no price tag on Internet text messaging, other than the cost set by the service provider. So why would shorthand still be in use? One user explains that “people use Netspeak while typing IMs because they see other people use [abbreviations]. Eventually it gets to the point where they use [abbreviations themselves] and tell other people what they mean, only adding to the overall usage of the language” (Oncal 1). Another user says that “it’s fast, easy, fun, and most of the time the guy on the other end doesn’t care and might be doing it himself” (Merquete 2).

A step up from person-to-person text messaging is the concept of the Internet “chatroom,” where multiple users can read and be read by anyone logged into the setup, aka “room.” These places can be seen as breeding grounds for grammar mishaps, as shown here:



After twenty minutes filtering the chat room of advertisements and highly insulting language, this shows the genuine state of the average chatroom. While chatroom users claim that “chat speed makes me type fast” and “who carez if i dont use gramar right,” good typing skills should negate the fast scroll speed of chatroom text (Gamingchat9 4). However, scholars believe that mistake-laden text such as that shown in the photograph is not just a collection of bad prepubescent typists and may be in fact a new form of communication. David Crystal, author of Language and the Internet, claims that “computer users, young and old alike, bridge generation gaps and share cultures around the world. Is it possible then that the common shorthand vernacular is a new Internet-specific dialect shared by the Web’s multilingual users?” (119). However, during an observation in a gaming chat room, multiple users committed acts of grammatical injustice that would make a language teacher swoon, forgetting syntax, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and especially good manners whilst debating hot topics. Oddly enough, a high percentage of grammar mistakes came from people whose usernames--six-to-twelve-letter personal identification user- created chatroom names--also held many of the same mistakes. A user named uzth4ctopk called his way of typing “uNiQuE oNlY tO mE” and that “iTs StYlE nOt MiStAkS” (Diablo Retail USA-1 15). Fortunately for uzth4ctopk, his “mistaks” were not only overlooked but actually welcomed by other chatroom members.

Not everyone forgives the fast and stylized typers. A resident of the forequoted gaming chatroom for a little over four months, a long stretch in the Internet universe, die-hard computer gamer and gaming chatroom pillar Elbereth claims “newbies hit the scene and want to look good, and the peabrained people who type all funny command respect from the other peabrains, so the newbies type all funny, thinking that’s the way to go” (Elbereth 2). Elbereth admits that “I used to do 1337-speak all the time, but after a while, it got real stupid…and I type good so people can read it now” (Elbereth 2). During the observation, Elbereth’s proper typing skills were mocked more than a dozen times, and at one point users adopted a sort of typed accent to make fun of him, laden with grammar errors (Diablo Retail USA-1 19).

Other Internet text mediums are not pressured for fast communication, yet suffer similar problems. Message boards and electronic mail (aka “email”) offer users “time to safely compose a message” without the hassle of “communication delays with instant messaging” and even a spellchecker service so users “won’t commit faux paus” (Dunnewind 3). However, many forum users forget about these services, and rush to “plop out replies or answers and let their fingers do the thinking” (Rushland 1). In response, Ironworks Forum composed a mild statement in their rules and regulations warning users not to “purposely interfere with normal dialog flow” and to “practice general netiquette at all times” (1). The Lurker Lounge takes a different bent on what the moderators there consider improper grammar usage, going so far as to say, albeit tongue-in-cheek, “if you take a language that *does* require punctuation and remove it... well, you'll get flames, hit with a rolled up scroll of grammar +1, and likely have trout-burn on your face” (*draws his trout* 1).

Could chatroom and IM text be considered a new form of communication? Elbereth disagrees, believing “people being stupid isn’t something new, and [Internet shorthand] is just people being stupid” (Elbereth 3). However, to examine Netspeak as a language, once must examine present-day languages. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, languages “exhibit many stylistic differences in spoken and written medium, but all serve the same purpose: to effectively communicate ideas from one person to another” (Language 552). By that definition, Netspeak could be a new form of communication because its users understand each other. Some people believe that Netspeak is just a new form of jargon. Aelia Jusa, a member of Ironworks Forum since 2001, thinks

Abbreviations are not an internet invention, witness things like etc, eg, ie and so on which are common even to formal publications (eg in scientific journals). The speed at which written language is required online, almost as if a spoken conversation were occuring merely requires that some shorthand is used. So I would say it's not 'new' per se, but just an extension of an old practice. (2)

The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines jargon as “technical vernacular for a particular field” (“Jargon” 56). Since the World Wide Web is a world of its own, jargon would seem to apply to Netspeak as well. As said by Crystal, “however it is defined, one cannot overlook the fact that while Netspeak may not be a language, it is indeed a new form of communication” (49).

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I have a wealth of texts on language and culture, and hoping to connect that to my paper somehow. I'm also drowning in sources, and I see the five hour exam (for the same class) swimming before my eyes. I leave for home in 4 days, and for Florida in 9. Can I survive to finally post the revised Diablo History Project? Is lack of sleep making me more melodramatic? Have I always been melodramatic?!

*runs screaming into the night and snow*

EDIT: Made the image smaller so Mavfin wouldn't get unhappy.