Weekly Written Analysis Assignment 1-4

Pop Culture Language: Internet Slang

The Word “Twitter” was declared by the Global Language Monitor, which tracks language trends, the most published English word of 2009 as reported by the Huffington Post. Everyone can remember when Ashton Kutcher won his bet against CNN to be the first to get 1 million followers on Twitter.

Along with Twitter emerged the language of internet slang, casual speech in writing and texting that uses acronyms and abbreviations to convey certain messages. Acronyms such as OMG, LOL, B4 CUL, (Oh My God, Laugh Out Loud, Before and See You Later), are some popular internet slang words that are used to tweet, blog, text and communicate.

According to MSNBC the most popular word on Face Book was HMU (Hit Me UP) a popular phrase used by teens and some adults meaning to “Call Me”. There are also tools to go along with the use of the language of internet slang such as dictionaries that several web sites have created that give you a complete A-Z listing and definitions of the words and their usage.

Some may argue that internet slang is unsuitable for formal communication, and they can be be annoying and unprofessional. Some educators feel that the use of internet slang has caused a complete misusage of the English language and proved to be a source of cop out for some high
school students to communicate properly, which makes their job none the less easier to teach these students.

What does this all mean? In every era of culture, there have been words, slogans, customs, and rituals that defined that particular group of people and their lifestyle and internet slang is no different.

Even in the work place in just about every industry that you can think of, from the smallest to fortune 500 companies, there are protocols and language that you must become familiar with in order to do your job or just communicate and every company has their own particular jargon. How long internet slang will be around is anyone’s guess.

I would like to be around another century to see how the language is interpreted by those who find it aninteresting topic. Will it be considered odd? or will it continue to evolve and be as popular as the words of Shakespear, who created words that have been coined, and is still being used
and studied some 400 years later.

Like it or hate it, the language of internet slang that is used to tweet, text, blog, email, use in poetry, and write about, is here for right now for all of us to examine, in some cases be a part of and most importantly to learn from.