Understanding Internet Slang
A quick background and explanation.
Introduction
With the world of social media, text messaging, and video calls becoming more widespread, the ways that people communicate are constantly evolving. Although the means of communication are clearly changing with the advent of computer mediation, the language used through new media is also adapting.
Text shorthands like “LOL” and “OMG”, which have direct connections to existing phrases, became shorter out of the need for greater communicative efficiency. Likewise, terms like “hashtag” and “un-like” have direct connections to social media functions.
What I intend to examine with my research project is the etymology and usage of terms that have emerged (or have been re-appropriated) primarily as a result of the changing cultural zeitgeist of new media, such as “dox”, “selfie”, “creeper”, etc.
Approach
I am going to analyze trends that emerge based on gender, culture, identity, and race to further understand the influence that cyberculture and social media had and continue to have on modern English and slang.
I will also examine the extent to which linguistic relativity becomes common in online communities through application of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis on slang and the subsequent interpersonal exchanges resultant from such language.
Parameters
I will reach any conclusions about the evolving online culture by combining direct observations/interactions from social media, online language tools like Urban Dictionary and Google Trends, and existing linguistic/anthropological theory. I will record any relevant findings and present my final research in a series of blog posts here on Medium.
Initial Research
Early research influential to the development of the project includes:
- “Impact of Social Networks and Technology on English Language Learners” by Azamat Akbarov and Ana Tankosic
- “TFW, DamnGina, Juvie, and Hotsie-Totsie: On the Linguistic and Social Aspects of Internet Slang” by Vivek Kulkarni and William Yang Wang
- “ETIQUETTE ONLINE: From NICE to NECESSARY” by Jenny Preece
- “Semantic Change in African American Slang” by Maciej Widawski
- “Who Creates Trends in Online Social Media: The Crowd or Opinion Leaders?” by Leihan Zhang, et al.
