With the advent of the internet in the 1980s, and its popularization a decade later, an upgrade in communication technology known as ‘instant messaging’ became accessible to the world. Previous communication tools such as letters included long paragraphs of reflective, prose-like writing, without any reinforcement from the receiver, and with no expectation of a quick response. Moreover, writing was a more laborious task than typing, and so writing at the pace of your thoughts or a flow-of-consciousness, was more difficult to achieve.
Internet communication could overcome many of these shortcomings, and eventually emerged as a medium more like conversational speech than writing, but not quite like either.Over time, the language of the internet has evolved rapidly, prompting the creation of fields of study like Internet Linguistics. In fact, its use has become so widespread some fear it will take over standard forms of languages, leaving behind the poetic prose of Shakespeare. To determine if these fears are valid requires a closer examination of the phenomenon, and how and why the unique quirks of this language exist as they do today.
When talking about ‘internet-speak’, the most apparent change is its grammar. It imitates spoken speech, invoking intonation by using multiple punctuations or no punctuation at all, and texting in small packets of words like one would when conversing.Other features like the usage of abbreviations are thought to be a product of convenience and limitations like the Twitter word limit.While such stylization is largely considered to be a feature of online communication, it has a long history before computers. E.E Cummings used it to better portray feelings in his poetry, and the last chapter of Ulysses contains only 2 periods among its 4391 long word count. Here, breaking the rules allowed room to be expressive and evocative, which is helpful when we look to the internet not only to communicate our thoughts and feelings but also as a creative outlet.
Another interesting feature is the tendency to create and re-create words and their meanings. The internet is famous for inventing new slang such as ‘girlboss’, ‘selfie’, ‘hashtag’ – which were either made up or given new life on the web. With time, these meanings too evolved. Think of how ‘lol’ used to mean ‘laugh out loud', but today is used more like a filler to keep a conversation moving, or about the use of ‘girlboss’. ‘Girlboss’ became more ironic as public perception of what it means to be a successful woman changed, and women in power were increasingly criticized for either abusing their privilege or upholding institutions that oppressed other women.
One of the most transformative features of internet communication, however, was the use of emojis. Having visual representations of common gestures, emotions, and objects was a game-changer because it provided the sort of non-verbal, subtextual input that is an essential part of face-to-face verbal conversation. Over time, emojis too have developed meanings that differ from their original ones, such as how the ‘clapping emoji’ is used between words for emphasis in a statement, and the skull emoji to signify dark humor or irony.While these points certainly make it unique from other types of communication, they still do not explain why languages evolve so quickly on the internet, nor the reason for their widespread use. Gretchen McCulloch uncovers the reason, explaining it is because the internet is made up of ‘weak ties’. What that means is that being on the internet exposes you to people you may not have a direct connection with, outside of your usual social circles. Since new linguistic patterns are picked up due to social interaction, which is much less in physical realms due to less exposure to new demographics of people, being on the internet expedites this process greatly.
This property is especially seen in the online phenomenon of ‘memes’, which often originate from a single person or a small group of people. Over time, they spread across a significant percentage of the online population, invading our offline lives too. Though memes started as pictorial humor, they often employed distinctive ways of speaking which transferred into written text and in everyday conversations. An example is the doge meme that has peculiar grammar and sentence composition, easily recognizable out of context.
Across it all, what is very evident about the language of the internet is that, like any sociolect, there is a sense of community among its users. Whether it is a certain stylistic choice in writing, or the rush of understanding a meme without explanation, the in-group created by its usage is a huge part of what the dialect thrives on. Moreover, it also invites all its users to the process of not only replication, but also experimenting and remaking in different forms, lengthening its lifetime on the internet and in the consciousness of its users.
A criticism often leveled at this kind of speech, is that its popularization has led to an over-reliance on auto-correct and is slowly eroding more standard forms of languages. After studying instant messaging samples alongside academic essays written by first-year university students, researchers concluded that ‘there is no breakdown of grammar; and there is little to no infiltration of Virtual Communication (Computer Mediated-Communication ) forms.’ McCulloch also expresses similar sentiments and explains that the relationship between standard forms and online forms of language is rather like ‘code-switching’: one simply switches from using the internet vernacular to more standard language forms when needed, such as academic writing or in poetry and prose.
The discourse above presents a reassuring picture about the future of language, whose eloquent prose still remains intact even as we discover new ways of expressing ourselves in the online sphere, fine-tuning the communication to be able to express nuance, emotions, and ideas like never before. Fears of it ruining linguistic beauty and integrity often arise because we tend to view language as a static entity. In reality, it is an ever-changing, versatile medium that exists to communicate the depths and creativity of the human mind.
Shaili Palrecha
