A Review of:

The Internet: Communication Corruptor or Language

Liberator?
Rebecca Straw, April 4, 2011

With the sending of the first electronic mail, e-mail and he internet changed the way people
communicate. Communication received a new meaning; writing letters have been replaced
through e-mails, short messages and even fax. Telephoning has been replaced through
messengers like skype, msn or even yahoo!.

Through internet communication, our language, that we know now; is becoming

endangered in a way. Especially among young people, chatting is popular and so with,
also the use of abbreviations such as; CU l8r, lol, bbl, brb, OMG etc. This way of
communication known as net-speak, through messengers; does not and can not really
express the emotions of the person on the other end. Therefore of course, there are
emoticons like :-), :-* etc. which shows how on might feel, however it is an empty kind of
feeling. A linguist explains; „ Net speak is not to be used out of this context, e-,ails should
be in the for of a letter and chatting could stay in the form of net-speak.“

Communication on the internet does not just start with e-mail writing and chatting but also
expands to online diary writing such as blogs or even a personal website. Linguist Crystal
say, „ They are written in its naked form without copy editors.“ Instant messaging itself is
seen as synchronous say another linguist. However, it could also be asynchronous
meaning the receiver could respond immediately or even wait a few hours before
responding.

Utterance breaks keep the person online and interested. For example; two people are
discussing their lunch plan. Person a asks, „want to meet at 12?“. The message is then
sent to person B who answers, „ How about 12:30?“ send this message and immediately
follows it with a new message; „ I have class until 12:10?“ All of this is seen as a sequence
and person B´s messages is seen as an utterance.

Studies have also shown that women and men communicate differently. Men like to inform
using less emoticons, while women use more emoticons and like showing more emotions.
Communication will change with technology making it easier for people, however, a
disadvantage could arise... people may become lazier and possibly uneducated regarding
their writing skills.