Number of Posts: 5
Posts 1 - 5
Words are getting shorter due to social media as 'Jomo' and 'mic drop' feature on word of the year list
Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 3.11.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | social media, spelling, texting, word/writing
Summary | With social media and texting, it seems that words are getting shorter. For instance, “jomo” stands for the “joy of missing out”; the acronym has been included on the Collins list of words that have seen a significant rise in usage. Other terms are: mic drop, throw shade, sharenting, uberisation, or dude food.
Image Description | Photograph of a group of people cheering, video of Obama dropping his mic, and photograph of Trump smiling
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)
France Plans a New Keyboard to Shift Control to Typists
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 22.1.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | language threat, spelling, word/writing
Summary | The French language is notoriously difficult to write and computer keyboards are not very well suited to facilitate typing for French typists. Important letters and diacritics are oftentimes hidden behind complicated shortcut combinations and discourage people from writing correctly in French. Since keyboards arrived, the false rumor that diacritics can be omitted on capital letters has spread around. Now the French governement is looking into designing a better keyboard standard for French typists.
Image Description | N/A
Comment donner le goût de la lecture?
(How to instill the love of reading?)
Newspaper | Le Figaro
Date | 20.3.2016
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | childhood, school, spelling, texting, threat, word/writing
Summary | Teenagers don't read a lot. This is not new, but nowadays texting and social networks are a priority among young people. They want immediacy, community, and noise, and reading equals silence, long time, and solitude. Young people read differently, which is why Bayard decided to focus on short stories instead of novels. Elementary schools are experimenting something new: the reading machine. Users can alternate on a tablet reading and listening phases.
Image Description | Photograph of an open book
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
Junge schreiben - mehr als je zuvor
(Youths write - more than ever)
Newspaper | Appenzeller Zeitung
Date | 29.1.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | code-switching, language threat, research/study, school, smartphone, social media, spelling, texting, word/writing, youth
Summary | There is a public hysteria about how youths are no longer capable of spelling correctly or writing appropriately and skillfully. All this is seen to be caused by new media such as smartphones. BUt young people today write far more than previous generations did: they post on social media and text every day. The only difference is that this writing culture is very informal and colloquial. Researchers however assume that one cannot simply state that this spoils their writing skills generally, most students are easily capable of code-switching from informal registers to a formal register appropriate for school.
Image Description | N/A
Page 1 of 1