Lynn was presenting the work of a student comparing features of language use in Instant Messaging chat between teenagers and undergraduates. Their findings are shown in the slide below, which gives you a flavour of their research:
A new concept arising from their work is that of 'medial kisses'. Many people sign off messages and emails with an 'x' but medial kisses are those used to end sentences throughout a conversation, almost in place of a full stop.
I was intrigued by the idea that most teenagers don't capitalise the word 'i' unless it's at the beginning of a sentence. This is an irregularity in the English language anyway, so if any changes result to written English over time due to this behaviour it will be to standardise, which may not be a bad thing. In fact the typical view seen in the press, that teenagers are ruining the English language and don't know how to use it properly, was completely overturned in the qualitative analysis of this research. The participants showed that by knowing how to use English properly they were better able to subvert it for efficiency and impact (following the current trends) when typing with their friends.
I've discussed this with a few colleagues since and decided there is definitely something generational happening here. I tend not to type an 'x' on anything unless it is family, a close friend or possibly somebodies birthday. I do however use emoticons (eg smilies like ;-} ) on emails and facebook posts very regularly in order to help clearly express emotion or lighten the tone.
I'm off to check my Twitter stream...how often do I use x and ;-} and LOL in my tweets? I'm pretty sure I always capitalise my 'I's though!
1 comments:
Nice story K xp
Post a Comment