oh NOEEESSSS is teh netLingo!!!1

I'm sure everyone has encountered many grammatical errors when surfing through websites, reading e-mails and even chatting on Windows Live Messenger. We find that many Internet users, in an attempt to save time and trouble, shorten the words they type into short forms, abbreviations, acronyms or shorten their sentences leaving many grammatical mistakes. Is this new 'language' acceptable?

Online gamers usually shorten their words to save precious gaming time, as seen in this comic by Scott Ramsoomair. Source: www.vgcats.com

Even though the Internet has been around for a long time, not everyone has fully adapted to the new net lingo (or geek speak like others call it). My mother works in the IT field and is very computer savvy but is still driven to confusion when she receives IMs (instant messages) from my little sister.

Terms that I have, or you may have, encountered on the Internet are like:

FTW - For the win!
ORLY? - Oh really?
ZOMG! - ZOH (yes the Z is there for dramatic effect) MY GOD!
NOOB - Newbie, amateur
ROFL - Roll on floor laughing
LOL - Laugh out loud

Definitions taken from NetLingo.com.

Even emoticons can be considered a part of this new language. If one is not familiar with Emoticons, he or she may not know that 8D or :-) indicates a smiley face. Which returns our attention to the question I posed earlier, is this new language acceptable? Is it ethical? Does it destroy our original Universal language?

Many think that the birth of the emoticon is the answer to all the misunderstandings and inability to read emotion and meaning in the e-mail messages we receive from our peers. A media report (2007) on ABC Radio National states that Professor Scott Fahlman invented the emoticon for exactly this purpose.

Will Scwalbe mentions in the report (2007) that you can make a mistake on email by being too casual, but you can also make a mistake by being too formal. In situations such as these, it is very important that language be used correctly for mistakes like these to never happen.

According to Schirato and Yell (1996), contects are never completely shared by all participants and communication cannot be completely controlled by the intention of the sender. If one person sends an email filled with emoticons, short forms and abbreviations, and it just so happens that you do not understand any of them, there is a high chance that you may just misinterpret the email for a totally different meaning that the senderhad originally intended.

But as far as whether or not this language is acceptable, it has been accepted whether we like it or not. Just as I mentioned in my post about genre change, we have to adapt to new things, and that is a remarkable ability we humans thankfully, are blessed with. We also do not have to worry about net lingo replacing the original English language, as we only use it online.

Well, except for those kids who go out yelling "LOL" every time someone tells them a joke.

References:

Schirato, T, & Yell, S 1996, Communication and cultural literacy: an introduction, St. Leonards, New South Wales.

Funnell, A 2007, Emoticons and email etiquette, The Media Report, ABC Radio National, viewed 11 November 2008,
<http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2064342.htm>

2008, NetLingo The Internet Dictionary, viewed 11 November 2008,
<http://www.netlingo.com/>

Ramsoomair, S n.d., Helm, the other white meat..., VGCats.com, viewed 5 November 2008,
<http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=60>