Gretchen McCulloch

The internet isn't the first technology to alter how we communicate, but it is making our language change faster and in more interesting ways than ever before. The programmers behind the apps and platforms we use decide how our conversations are structured, from the grammar of status updates to the protocols of comments and @replies. Linguistically inventive niche online communities spread slang and jargon exponentially faster than in the days when new dialects were constrained by physical space. What's more, social media provides a fascinating laboratory for watching language evolve in real time.

Understanding the New Rules of Language

Because Internet

LOL this brings me back to that episode in Dear Hank and John where they spent like 15 minutes trying to come up with how to spell "as per uzh"

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We truncate words without regard for spelling: you can say the first syllable of “us! al" or "casual" and everyone knows what you mean, but do you write it "yooj"? “uzh"? "cazh"? "casj"?

These forms are shorter in writing, but not necessarily more efficient in speech, even though we somnetimes speak them aloud when we're talking about specialized topics: it takes longer to say "ampersand" or WWF" than “and" or "World Wildlife Fund."

So this is why when I was younger I was proud of not having a medhok accent in speaking Indonesian, but when I'm older my values change and I try harder in getting rid of my Jakartan accent instead lol

Sometimes, we decide to align ourselves with the existing holders of power by talking like they do, so we can seem rich or educated or upwardly mobile. Sometimes, we decide to align ourselves with particular less powerful groups, to show that we belong and to seem cool, antiauthoritarian, or not stuck-up.

Because Internet quotes

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