The Internet Language Impacting On English

The Internet Language Impacting On English
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Introduction
In the past, following the invention of the television set and use in most of the homes and public spaces, it was coined the global fireplace. A place where every other family that would afford a television set would gather late in the evening and watch till they were ready to sleep. It became the main channel where people would get in touch with the world in the sense that they would get to watch the news from across the world among other aspects such as content created across the globe. The internet and the age of technology have even brought more elements to the aspect of global interconnectivity. It is a platform that exhibited massive potential. Nearly all parts of the society are affected by internet at the personal level and even at a more intricate level such as the government and the military. The internet has created a platform that has massive applications with a good number of most systems running on it (Swartzlander, 2010). One of the most interesting aspects of the internet platform and its creations is the ability to connect with anyone across the globe on a virtual level. Social media platforms are officially a pillar in the society, where people can interact with their friends and loved ones using computer based programs or the more common platform, the mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, smart-watches and laptops.
To pass messages from one user to the next, there is the element of texting which has had ground breaking influence on how interact. Like most modes of communication the internet language has evolved with time, and there is a rise in the use of acronyms which make easier for people to respond fast and with relative ease regardless of where they are or what they are doing. It is this relative need to type messages fast and customize language codes among friends that has borne the element of the internet language (Swartzlander, 2010). The youths are the most affected by the internet language seeing that they spend most of their time on the social media and other messaging platforms. As a result of the growth of the internet language, most of the habits are thus eroding the English language skills relative to written and communication skills. As a result there are concerns amongst most scholars that the internet language is affecting the English language and thus affecting the rest of the learning abilities in other subjects, negatively impacting their academic performance (Yousaf& Ahmed, 2013).
Thesis statement: the internet language is part of the English language evolution
The English language and writing skills
Historically writing skills came much later after people had devised various sounds which they would use a means to communicate. As such, in reference to the general ability of man to write out symbols and signs as a means of communication dates back some five millenniums. This is much later that the use of spoken sounds to make words which came in much earlier around 80 millenniums(McWhorter, 2013). Writing can thus be considered to be an artifice of speech. The basic element in most languages let alone English is that there is an aspect of speech and an aspect writing symbols. The English language which is a decent from the Germanic tribes in the 5th century when they invaded Britain has seen a lot of developments since then to what is studies and used in the current day(Englishclub.com, 2015). Over the years of development there were contributions from the Angles, Jutes, Saxons and even the Celtic language. All the signs, symbolsand vocabulary that are used in the English language are thus largely borrowed from these cultures. English language has grown from the old English, Middle English, and modern English to the later modern English that is largely different from the rest due to the level of vocabulary(Englishclub.com, 2015). This latter aspect is a resultant of technological advance in the industrial revolution age as language needed to accommodate new terms and the fact that the BritishEmpire covered an estimated quarter of the entirecontinent, as such borrowing heavily from other languages. This is a common element, of language evolution as different cultures interact. However, every other language has it set of rules and standards that make formally recognized(Merritt, 2013). In English there are rules and standards that govern tenses, word spellings, word order, sentence constructions, vocabulary use and the formal and inform use of the language. Internet language is set to impact these very basics of the English language in a subtle manner(McWhorter, 2013).
Internet language/internet slang
In the past, the communication platforms did not allow easier and instant messaging, which made easier to speak in a conversation than write in one. Today with the advent of technology, one able to write and get comments instantly any time of day(Risto, 2014). This would explain the booming trend in the internet language as more people engage with one another across the globe. Taking a cellphone from a teenager these days is like taking part of their brain away; they practically live their lives on the internet. It is estimated that an average teenager will send more than 200 text messages on a normal day, which easily translate into a 2000 word essay daily(Risto, 2014).In one of the informal and anonymous jokes on the internet states that; the easiest way to call a family meeting is unplugging the router and everyone in the house will converge where the router is located(Risto, 2014).
Practically every public and private space is graced by a person or several using their mobile devices while interacting with their friends on the internet or just consuming media content. Social media platforms such Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, WhatApps, Google plus, Viber, hangouts and Skype, are among the most common platforms that people interact with which have the chat abilities(Dockrell& Connelly, 2009). Given the fact that most developers have seen the need to give the applications cross platform abilities, they cross between internet on a desktop computer and texting on the mobile devices. The linking factor in this ability is the fact that the various platforms used have the ability to connect to the internet.
Although the internet language is sometimes used by the older generation, it the younger generation in the early 30s and below that have truly revolutionized how the internet language has evolved over the years.Instead of using the English language writing skills to the fullest, there isshorthand or rather acronyms that are used to make chatting a lot easier and faster. It also means that, as different persons within a certain age group interact they encode their language that is going to be easier for them to understand (Swartzlander, 2010). This means that although there are generally accepted acronyms across the different ages in the youths, there also some differences in the acronyms dynamics within the age groups. This is to mean that, the person in the 30s may comfortably use the general acronyms that those in their twenties will understand and consequently those in the teenage years(Risto, 2014). However, there are those acronyms that the teenager and the persons in the twenties will use that the people in their 30s will not understand. However, there is a general trend in the number of internet language codes that are used on a daily basis.
Some of the acronym examples are follows;
BTW; used to mean, by the way
LOL; used to mean, laughing out loud
TTYL; talk to you later
CWOT; complete waste of time
BTE; best time ever
LTNC; long time no chat
Sentence example; I jsthd a gr8 smmrholsat my bros plc in NY with his GF n kids.
What is even more interesting is the fact that the acronyms also evolve with time. Acronyms such as LOL have changed overtime as it does not just refer to; laughing out loud, in the literal sense but also convers some sense of attitude which may be used to set the stage for a chat conversation; such as, “LOL at the lib studying 4 xms”. This sets the mood that the student is in the library, although they would rather be doing something else that is more fun. As such the internet language uses some of the words and abbreviations that are alphanumeric to convey messages between the communicating parties. Sometimes English words are used to mean different things than what they generally mean. Words like “stoned” mean that one is high from a drug, which could also referred to as “being wasted”. These elements of the internet language and slangare suspected to have a massive impact on the way the young generation communicates alongside the way they use the correct grammatical English in their normal educational exercises.
Internet language impacting the English language and academic performance
In 2003 the telegram website ran a news article by AuslanCramb a Scottish correspondent about a girl who had used text shorthand in her assignment(Cramb, 2003). The girl said to be 13 years old, bemused her teacher, when in her essay, she used the internet language commonly used by the younger generation while texting. According to the secondary school student, she explained that in her vi...