#crwr205

CRWR 205 (Creative Non-Fiction) Assignment #3: ONLINE WRITING

Jenifer Wong

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Me: I woke up late today. I need to do laundry first. It takes an hour to clean and dry. I’ll be at Irving at around 3pm. Jay: Aite. Kk jus lemme kno when ur here Jay: Soz I’m gonna b like 5/10 min late Me: So are you going to the Holi Festival this Sunday? Jay: Who r u going wif? Me: Not sure yet. I’m asking around. Jay: K I am coming wif a bunch of frds. Ttyl

I’m not sure how long it took me to finally be able to understand this fascinating code or language used by my friends in the above mobile chat exchanges on my phone, but for someone who started off as a kid coming from a more technologically backward country (I was born in South Africa) where Internet was extremely expensive and less accessible, it took me a quite while before I became proficient at “Internet slang”. The above examples were taken very recently (March 2015) and as you can see, I still type in almost full grammatical sentences and words till this day (you’ll see why later). Though I must admit I cannot resist the urge to sprinkle my instant messages with LOLs, WTFs, and XDs, once in a while, to express a point I want to make or lighten the atmosphere by not sounding so serious.

There are so many names for Internet slang. Chat speak, text speak, SMS messaging, Cyber slang, netspeak, Internet shorthand, textese, txtspk, txt lingo, net lingo, l337 speak, etc. It just goes to show how prominent this phenomenon is among a modern society today that embraces technology. We live in an instant gratification culture where time is of the essence. Or maybe we’re just really lazy now. We don’t even spare a few more seconds to type extra letters in “Talk to you later!” and throw a “ttyl” instead to others. We have become more impatient and social media has urged us to get straight to the point and to express ourselves in as little words as possible from an audience with short attention spans. It’s a marketing technique yet it is also found traditional writing techniques too. When it comes to essay writing we are taught in schools to be concise and remove fluff, especially when you have that pesky word or page limit to adhere to. It’s not a bad thing be concise at all but I think it’s good to go back to reading books once in a while and immerse oneself in full prose, novels or timeless classics like Charles Dickens, Harper Lee, Roald Dahl, F. Scott Fitzgerald, etc. instead of sticking to just reading short status updates that say something like “Just got my first tongue piercing! Hellz yeah~ #thuglyfe #badass #piercing #2015″ etc.

I’m around 11 or 12 years old. I’m eagerly staring at the CRT computer monitor while my mom hunches over me. I don’t have an email yet so I’m using hers to contact my cousin in Seattle. Excited, I type gingerly on the white plastic keyboard with thick fat keys composing my first email. One day, my cousin sends me a link to her blog.  I read her post and then one of the comments below catches my eye. It says, “pokes teh siggy”. Another replies with “so true.”  I stare at it for a long time, wondering what on earth that means. Is it English? It seems so. But what is it?! What could it mean?! I turn to my trusty little Oxford Dictionary book but to no avail.

I clearly remember that was the first time I came across Internet slang and struggled so much over it. I finally decoded it a few years later when I moved to Hong Kong and came across cheaper, faster, and sweet, glorious, unlimited Internet access. “The” is an alternative spelling of “the” and “siggy” referred to the user’s comment signature on the art community website Deviantart.com. That site ate up most of my adolescence and that’s how I became preoccupied with the “interwebs.”

Naturally, as an English literature major, I have a tendency to be a “grammar nazi”and point out typos or poorly formed structured sentences that are written or spoken by my friends or peers once in a while, with good intention or just to crack a joke. I’m no English language master and I still have a lot to learn but I always try to uphold proper spelling and grammar as it is essential to my academic career, especially when my specialization is in the English language itself. However, I do not reprimand my friends or acquaintances when they use text speak. I try to understand them as best as I can and learn from them.

It’s 2006 and I’m in my first year of highschool. I’m sitting next to my classmate who is rushing to do finish her assignment. I glance at her essay and I gape. For the first time I get to see her writing. I spot the words like “cuz,” “whateva,” and “ur” littered all over her essay. I resist the urge not to say anything, worried that I will lose a potential friend because it’s hard enough being a new student at a school in a different country. During lunch, I make a new friend and she introduces me to a blog called Xanga. She proudly shows me her online profile, heavily decorated and customized with shiny animations and a sparkly cursor that hover over her prolific online journal posts. At home, I hop onto my computer and read her posts, filled with so much L337 5p34k and online jargon that I try to decipher and imitate in my spare time.

Moments like these in high school still sticks to me today. One of the reasons why I personally refrain from using text speak when chatting, even with my peers, is because I want to practice good writing and speech for myself (self-discipline!) and I fear that getting into the habit of using slang everyday will slip in my mind and affect my academic or professional writing. I try not to let my casual online chat habits subconsciously entrench itself in my formal writing. If I want to improve my English, then practice makes perfect. Another reason why I refrain from using Internet slang is because I have this compulsion or anxiety of making sure I get a clear message across. I like to make sure I say what I want to say as clearly as possible and I want no misunderstanding caused on my part. Clear and effective communication is very important to me and I want to accommodate as many readers as possible. That is not to say that I entirely agree with the notion that Internet slang is no less effective than “proper” English. I just I like to do things my own way even if I’m seen as different or more conventional. I understand online slang can be more effective and quicker at getting the message across since technically there are less words or letters to read through.

Of course there are people I know who write very fluent English (even as their second language too) who use the most informal forms of online messaging with me. I have a cousin, a bright student studying law and has excellent reading and writing skills, who’s online messaging style is unexpected from someone like him: missing or incorrect use of punctuation and possessives, no capitalization, contractions, etc.  He is my personal example to show that Internet slang does not necessarily reduce intelligibility or is a measure or indication of judging the educational level of an individual. I think being fluent in both English language and Internet speak is a plus because it’s kind of like being multilingual.

“Jenifer! Come here,” my mom nags at me, adjusting her red-rimmed Prada glasses, glaring at her brand-spanking-new iPhone 6 screen while I put down my dusty, scratched iPhone 5 to attend to her. “What does this mean? I don’t understand what BTW, ZOMG, FB mean. Is that what you kids use these days?”  

You could say that my mom was part of the inspiration behind this blog. Funny moments like these make me think about how I can explain new unfamiliar concepts to older folks without being a whiny uncooperative teenager. At least she doesn’t misinterpret LOL as “Lots of Love” unlike many other confused parents. I suppose you could share this blog post for any old folks out there who want to be as hip as my mom with today’s online social media trends. Some of us younger peeps might disapprove of this and think of how “uncool” this idea may be but I think this would help bridge the gap between the older generation and the younger kids and bring us a little closer to each other. I’m sure many parents struggle to understand their children and communication is key to a more understanding, harmonious relationship. Arguing over incomprehensive online slang terms in Whatsapp messages sounds ridiculous really. On the bright side, the results can sometimes be a funny and a something to laugh about together like these examples of how autocorrect can create so much havoc.  Stark differences can be noted in the way the parents’ responses are typed in terms of grammar and lexis compared to their kids.

I make a call to the bank and I’m directed to the automated machine on the phone. A voice tells me to press the pound sign (#) and I pause to think “Crap! What’s the pound sign again?” panicking under the time constraint to enter my account number. Mistaking it for the asterisk, I shoot myself in the foot when I realize how I’ve become so accustomed to the use of the term hashtag.

Hashtags are all the rage now and I try to use it minimally. It’s no surprise if you now see walls and walls of, not texts, but hastagged words or phrases without spaces everywhere to the point that it’s overkill. (#thisisaverylonghashtagthatcangoonandonforever) Our style of prose has undergone such phenomenal changes that never existed just 10 years ago or so. Twitter user, Messina, first created the hashtag. He says he came up with the hashtag to find an easy way to bring together people discussing the same topic online. For example: #tbt meaning Throw Back Thursday is used by people who are reminiscing fond memories.

I try hard to keep up with the net lingo these days and even I, a 20-something tech-savvy modern young woman who’s assigned role at home is the 24/7 tech support, still need to rely on Urban Dictionary. I even have the app on my phone, which I can use on the go. When I hear people say something unfamiliar I use it. When I read something on my phone and can’t decipher a word, I use it. People throw around the latest tech or online slang terms and take them for granted, assuming everyone will understand. However, text speak sometimes isn’t too hard to read for everyone, even for a novice. It’s quite interesting that humans can read without vowels if all the consonants are provided. People are able to fill in the gaps automatically. For example, you’d probably be able to guess that srsly means seriously and tmrw is tomorrow.

When I say I am a reluctant net lingo user, I am not saying that I strongly support and encourage everyone to use the old fashioned Queen’s English only and condemn improper or ungrammatical chat speak. What makes English so dynamic is its ever-evolving nature where users can be innovative and create new words for new ideas. Words like “google” has become so much more than the name of the search engine itself; it is most often used as a verb (“If you you’re not sure, just google it!”).  It won’t be long before text speak words make it’s way into the official lexical records of the Big D: the Dictionary. In fact, it’s already happening. Big news was made over the addition of the word “selfie” to the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013. It has even become “Word of the Year.”

I’m all for effective communication and when I'm in a rush to message a friend, I don't have time to type out a perfectly grammatical spell checked response and that's where text speak and acronyms come in and does the job nicely. I use text speak as a means to get on a more personal level with friends or acquaintances my age or younger and it brings us closer. To end off, here are video links to some hilarious takes on what Internet would be like in real life: