Number of Posts: 13
Posts 1 - 10
'Ha' Isn't a Laugh. Seriously?
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 8.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | abbreviations, emojis, Facebook, research/study, texting, word/writing
Summary | People express laughs in different ways when the text or otherwise communicate online. Some type a version of "haha", others write "LOL" or a similar abbreviation but none of these messages mean that one is actually laughing. Linguists who have analyzed thousands of texts claim that LOLs signal interlocutor involvement like an "uh-huh" on the phone.
Image Description | Cartoon of various people laughing with various noises.
Image Tags | male(s)
What Happened to Who?
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 8.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | abbreviations, grammar, language threat, politics, Twitter
Summary | More and more politicians have begun replacing the relative pronoun "who" with "that" in sentences like ''people that come with a legal visa and overstay''. Although some dictionaries say this is an acceptable for, the New York Times' style sheet does not condone using "that" instead of "who". It denies the mentioned persons their humanity. This trend is unsurprising considering that our communication is increasingly happening on platforms like Twitter that only allow 140 characters so that we invent loads of abbreviations like "LOL" and "TTYL".
Image Description | Artwork copying Edvard Munch's "The Scream" and a few high-profile Tweets with spelling mistakes.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), Twitter
Der schleichende Niedergang der SMS
(The creeping descent of text messages)
Newspaper | Welt
Date | 2.2.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | abbreviations, texting, WhatsApp
Summary | Texting has revolutionized our mobile communication in teh 1990s. Text messages have created a culture of abbreviations that we have kept going until today. The text message is however slowly going extinct. WhatsApp and other similar instant messaging apps are taking over because they do not charge per message. They do not charge at all - the only thing needed is a device with internet connection.
Image Description | N/A
Le point à la fin du SMS: un mauvais signe
(A period at the end of a text: a bad sign)
Newspaper | Le Monde
Date | 5.1.2016
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | abbreviations, misunderstanding, punctuation, spelling, texting, word/writing
Summary | Texting is becoming very popular among younger people who will soon be getting their smartphone transplanted on their hand. The language of texting is "cool", does not necessarily follow traditional rules, uses phonetics and abbreviations. Moreover, to replace the tone of voice and other nonverbal cues that are lacking in writing, people use emoticons. Now, it seems that adding a period at the end of a text can lead to misunderstandings.
Image Description | Photograph of a businessman walking and looking at his phone
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone
Eines der reichsten Länder knausert beim Bildungswesen
(One of the wealthiest countries is stingy about education)
Newspaper | Sonntagszeitung
Date | 19.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | abbreviations, childhood, language threat, school, threat
Summary | Children nowadays get a smartphone as soon as they are physically able to hold one and spend their whole lives in an artificial, digital environment. All information is at their finger tips, they only need to know how to read. They mix languages and use more and more abbreviations. To top it off: the goverments cuts money from education.
Image Description | N/A
Jetzt kommt die Sticker-Schwemme
(The sticker flood is on its way)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 15.11.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | abbreviations, emojis, Facebook, language threat, marketing, social media
Summary | Emoticons (f.i. ":-D") and abbreviations (f.i. "LOL") have trickled down from "geek speak" and established themselves in the mainstream. Emojis are nowadays ever present in our digital communication as well as in other arenas such as film or advertising. Now various social media platforms, among them Facebook, offer users various palettes of stickers. They are larger versions of emojis and are sent as an image file rather than included on the keyboard as a letter. Because many sticker palettes need to be purchased, a whole economy is beginning to form: The Japanese messaging app Line has sold over $250 mio worth of stickers last year. We do not need to fear that emojis and co. will replace language as we know it.
Image Description | Commodified emojis in various forms (as balls, as tattoos, as bed sheets, as food, on clothing, as masks, etc.) and Facebook messenger chats using/purchasing sticker collections.
Image Tags | emojis, Facebook, male(s), social media
Sexting: A language our children must never learn
Newspaper | Daily Telegraph
Date | 20.4.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | abbreviations, childhood, sexting, technology-free, threat, youth
Summary | Youths are using abbreviations to keep their parents out of the loop like LMIRL (let's meet in real life). The police have published a list of these to help parents monitor their children. It is sad that children and teenagers have such low self-esteem that they do anything to receive validation from their digital peers. This is not just youth culture or rap music's fault but rather the parent's fault. They are always busy and spend too much time on their smartphone rather than gracing their children with face-to-face attention and smartphone-free activities.
Image Description | Getty image of a teenage boy smirking at a smartphone.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone
Kommunikation ist alles
(Communication is everything)
Newspaper | Frankfurter Neue Presse
Date | 4.2.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | abbreviations, childhood, language threat, smartphone
Summary | Many young children already have smartphones. It is problematic if youths spend too much time on new media - they don't learn how to interact face-to-face so that they whip out the phone even if they are hanging out with a friend. They increasingly write in abbreviations which makes them do badly in school. Parents are part of the problem, because they demand that their children be available on the smartphone at all times. It is important to give children positive offline experiences.
Image Description | Image of a man holding a cell phone and holding his thumb up.
Image Tags | cell phone, hand(s), male(s)
Jetzt kommt die Sticker-Schwemme
(Now comes the sticker flood)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 15.11.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | abbreviations, emojis, marketing, texting
Summary | People use emojis to express non-verbal emotions in their text messages. Stickers are more elaborate emojis - larger and there is more of a selection. One can even buy thematic sticker sets. This has become a very profitable industry in Japan.
Image Description | A series of images of that represent the commodification of emojis; also Facebook stickers and Kaomojis (Shruggie with punctuation marks).
Image Tags | emojis
So unterschiedlich kann man Liebe per SMS gestehen
(There are many ways to confess one's love via text message)
Newspaper | Welt
Date | 12.10.2015
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | abbreviations, emojis, punctuation, texting
Summary | There is a lot of ways in which one can write "I love you" in a text message and all of them mean something slightly different. Punctiation can transform the whole tone of the statement. Abbreviation of the three infamous words can make it less serious - which can be a good or a bad thing depending on context. Emojis are complicated and ambiguous.
Image Description | Photograph of heart ballons with letters flying into the sky.
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