Читать книгу The Communication Playbook - Teri Kwal Gamble - Страница 214

If you’re like many students, you may lapse into online speak even when writing offline. When writing a paper for his economics class, one student wrote, “Surplus is an excess. But surplus can also b 2 much.” His instructor deducted 10 points. The protocol of informality that marks digital communication finds us now debating whether the Internet invigorates language or strips it of its expressive power.⁷³

When linguists talk of dialects, by tradition they are referring to the spoken word. Online speak and texting, however, have spawned a new written dialect, one in between speech and writing. In online speak, punctuation is abandoned, capital letters are used primarily to represent shouting, and an array of acronyms substitute for phrases. Knowing and using the dialect allows us to develop a sense of belonging to the group—a group that exists in cyberspace.

As we see, texting has its own private language or code. In fact, some young adults use acronyms to keep their parents from discovering their involvement with drugs, alcohol, or casual sex. It is not uncommon to find people together in one room, but they text rather than speak to one another. Why? They want to share but don’t want others to hear what they are saying. Have you ever been part of or privy to such behavior, perhaps when in a car, a classroom, or your own living room? We use texting as a means of creating a social circle apart from others.

pecaphoto77/Shutterstock.com

iStock/izusek

Misunderstanding texting lingo can be embarrassing. For example, a woman had a friend whose mother had recently died. The woman texted her friend, “I’m really sorry to hear about your mom’s passing. LOL. Let me know how I can help.” She thought LOL meant “lots of love.”

Users report talking much more enthusiastically online than in the real world: “Like if I see something remotely funny, I might say HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH, when really there is no expression on my face.” Speech on Facebook is often breathless and emphatic, filled with words like “Okkkkkayyy” and “OMY!” It is as if some users feel the need to jump up and down to get the reader’s attention.⁷⁴ Other observers believe that texting is popular because people long to share private conversations. The ability to send silent text messages in public spaces is so appealing that many people send texts during movies, sports events, on public transportation, or when dining. Are you among the many? In your opinion, where should we draw the line indicating when texting becomes inappropriate?