Language and the new online lingo

Each and every language has semantics and semiotics associated with it. These can be considered to represent the structure of a language. Technology can cause immense changes in the dynamics of a language. This can be demonstrated best if we consider filmmaking or photography to be a language. The ‘visual’ languages are most affected by technology. As advancements in technology have been made, films and photographs have completely changed! From the black and white silent films of Charlie Chaplin we have come to the purely digital realm of a film like “300”. I talk about all this before getting down to the issue of online communication simply because I want to illustrate that technology has completely altered the experience that gazing at a photograph or viewing a film has been. Altered the way in which our emotions are affected by these experiences.

Online communication clearly deals with the languages that we use in every day life in order to communicate with one another through the medium of words. We communicate online through the internet and the short messaging service provided by the cellular providers. In the past few years it has become clear that the English language has been greatly affected because of online communication! Youngsters these days have no qualms in quite literally murdering traditional English usage and communicating in what appears to be a different language altogether! Vowels are often skipped, sentences are broken, punctuation is ignored in most cases and to top it all, the ‘text’ is interspersed with strange looking emoticons.

So has much the English language been ruined because of online communication? It has been ruined to an extent keeping semantics in mind. The rigid structure that has been followed for all these years has undoubtedly been ravaged. Apart from this, phrases such as “lol”, “asap”, “brb” have become part and parcel of everyday usage. Purists obviously look down upon these new developments and in most cases cannot even decipher what a youngster may be attempting to communicate through the medium of online communication!

Like all languages, the English language also has semantics and semiotics associated with it. We have already seen the impact that online communication has had on the semantics of the English language. What about the semiotic aspect? In my opinion, online communication may have had an immensely negative impact on the semantics but it undoubtedly has had an even bigger impact on the semiotics of the English language. Messages sent in the apparent gibberish of online chats or SMSes are extremely personalised so to speak. Each person has his own way with the new lingo that we see around us. Apart from that, we need to question the reason for this lingo actually coming in to being. One reason obviously is that it is much faster to use. Another and more interesting reason is that society has changed and the way in which we express has changed.

The grammar of language may have been ruined because of online communication but language is definitely richer because of it.

Hmmm... 30 minutes... 500 words... Not bad I'd say. Posting it as I wrote it under those constraints. Not very good work by any means. Under the circumstances? Nice.