The new lexicon

Posted by S.

I get into a conversation more often than I’d like about our changing language.

There was a local NPR talk show discussing the loss of languages in our world. Apparently  half of the 700 world languages are standing on the brink of extinction. But there’s no mention here on the sprouting languages that are replacing ancient tongues.

For instance, look at the title of this blog: BTW, WTF. It’s symbolic of our changing language. Teachers, parents, elders complain about the youth not being able to form a complete sentence. But in the modern world of texting, Facebooking and Tweeting, where brevity is king, language is being condensed, abbreviated, implied and omitted.

If you look at Hebrew, you will notice its absence of vowels. Sure, there are vowel dots on some texts, but true Hebrew is written in a condensed form where the vowels are implied. In Braille, also, the code for contracted Braille omits letters and vowels. A single symbol can stand for an entire word. This may be a moot point, in that we are still using these language families to construct true sentences, with a subject, a verb and a predicate. But perhaps we are failing to understand the hidden nuances in the modern language that is rapidly being developed before our eyes, actually on our LCD and touch screens.

What does “LOL” or “BTW” or “snd me txt” leave out? The message is clearly there. We are still communicating and gleaning meaning from these language codes. Of course, Shaw and Shakespeare would wonder what we were saying, but as long as we know what’s going on we can save our fellow human from being eaten by a mastadon.

More on Facebooking

Posted by Shoshana

Yes, the wonderful world of Facebook has tapped me in to long lost nemesi (is that plural?) and friends from past lives. It’s a little trippy to be communicating, albeit limited communication, with people I have not talked to in decades.

Aleza mentioned a sort of voyeuristic quality to Facebook and other social networking sites, and this is something that I think draws people in. I’ll tell you a story about this one time when I posted pictures of my husband getting a tattoo. For the entire week following the posting, people at his medical school he didn’t even know came up to him to tell him they saw his tattoo pictures on Facebook. He was a little terrified of Facebook before this incident, but afterwards he wondered who else could see things he wasn’t necessarily interested in sharing with people. Because I had posted the photos on my profile, they were visible to all my “friends” and all of my friends’ friends. The network spiraled out of control.

My husband is still rejecting the idea of Facebook. He refuses to join. He is a revolutionary, of course. And we will all learn our lessons in the end.

On a fictional wall in cyber space

Posted by A.

I enjoyed Shoshana’s post on Stories from the Heartland about “Christmas Card” friends (you know, the ones who you only correspond with via holiday cards). It’s strange and a bit sad to admit how many people in my life have become relegated to an annual address label and postage stamp.

I suppose sending a card takes at least a little more effort than merely approving a Facebook friend request and posting some random, whimiscal and/or witty nonsense on a fictional wall in cyber space. On Facebook, I am friends with my first childhood crush, my high school nemesis and my college roommate. I am also friends with three hotels, a slew of Las Vegas-based PR folk whom I only know by name, an Indian restaurant and The Simpsons (as in the animated FOX series).  Is it just me, or has the definition of “friend” becoming watered down in this age of social networking?

In reality, I only count a handful of people among my closest friends, (that’s not including family). Sometimes I make the hasty mistake of counting the fingers on my second hand, but it usually doesn’t take long before those fingers fold back down into a hypothetical fist.

Facebook is a non-commital — a.k.a. lazy — way to keep in touch with people, not to be confused with actual face-to-face relationships. It is really not that different from the concept of selling yourself during real-life networking or at a high school reunion. On Facebook, as in life, we only show other people what we want them to see (and in some cases, that’s TMI). But on Facebook, you have the convenience of a “delete” button and the option not to post – a filter we don’t always have on a day to day basis. Don’t even get me started on the voyeuristic side of Facebook …

Not to say that it isn’t worthwhile, fun and occasionally a good way to pass time. I’ve certainly had my share of good Scrabble challenges and some enjoyable conversations. Also, having skipped my 10 year high school reunion,  Facebook has happily helped me to reunite, reconnect and reconcile with certain ghosts from the past I never thought I’d hear from again.

I think of it sort of like therapy, only much cheaper.

Jackson dies, internet wins

The results are in on our Michael Jackson poll with the majority of our readers learning about the pop star’s death online.

Forthy-three percent of voters learned the news through an internet news source such as TMZ, People.com or Yahoo! This is followed by 29 percent who heard the news through other outlets (including television and instant messenger). Finally, Facebook and Twitter were tied at 14 percent.

Other than voters who chose television, pretty much everyone heard the news online. Not one person in our poll read it in the newspaper or heard it on the radio. 

If Jackson had died in the middle of the night, would the results be different? What about in other countries? We did receive a tweet from a chap in Melbourne, Australia who, because of the time difference, woke up to hear about  MJ’s death on the morning news.

Since the Gloved One’s passing took place in the middle of the American work day, when the majority of American workers were sitting in front of a computer,  it seems only natural that most Americans would hear about it online (unless they’re the mayor of Las Vegas). This is particularly true given the immediacy of the internet, and the ease of texting, e-mailing and sharing links.

So what does that say about newspapers? How can they keep up and stay relevant when the internet always beats them to the punch? If newspapers don’t adapt to this reality and find new, more in depth ways to present information, they will sadly continue down the path to extinction they are already on.

How you heard the news…

Please take this poll so we can track how our readers heard the news about Michael Jackson’s death yesterday. We are very interested in how people are getting their news these days. Thank you for your participation! And pass it along after you’ve voted.

 

 

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If Watergate broke today …

Posted by A.

News of MJ’s death spread across Twitter and Facebook yesterday faster than crabs at band camp. As my friend Rebecca points out on Facebook, updates on social networking sites are becoming the source for news – and if  the story of Watergate broke today it might look a little like this:

@d33pthroat1 Dude! @nix is such an ass! Sent posse to @waterg8 for “fact finding” mission. WHTVR!

Here is BTW, WTF?!?!’s interpretation of how some other historic news stories might break today:

The OJ murder trial:
@thejuice Need my black gloves back.

Lewinskygate:
@trippin1998 Can you suggest a good dry cleaner? @laydzmanpotusa has terrible aim. LOL!

JFK assassination:
@jackie It’s a beautiful day in Dallas. Let’s take the convertible.

Facebook Blew Up

Posted by Shoshana

It wasn’t even TMZ that broke the news to me, it was Facebook. Here I am, playing a innocent game of Scrabble with some die hard friends, and all of a sudden, Michael Jackson goes into cardiac arrest.

It’s nice to know that the world can come crashing down and I will find out first by my Facebook cronies. It’s still the topic of the night. Check it out. Facebook revolution.

All about Elwood

Posted by A.

Do you ever lay awake in the middle of the night plagued by random questions – Did I remember to refrigerate the leftovers from dinner? Will Conan’s unique brand of hilarity survive in the Tonight Show slot?; Who’s That AOL Guy Who Eerily Knows When You’ve Got Mail? – stuff that shouldn’t actually matter at 2 a.m., and yet you can’t seem to let it go? So you roll out of bed, check the refrigerator, Google “AOL Guy,” discover the answer is Elwood Edwards, post a tweet about Elwood. At that point you can’t help but check your Facebook where you’re thrust into the grips of a photo album posted by a friend with photos from a party you weren’t invited to. You feel bitter and angry and start cursing facebook, you pace back and forth, you bang the keyboard, you sacrafice the 10 ”friends” closest to the party planner (even though there’s no free Whopper involved), and that makes you feel slightly better so you take a quiz to determine just “How Bitchy Are You?” (40% Bitchy) — At this point it’s 3 a.m.,  which means you have less than 3 hours until the baby wakes up, and you are extremely tired but you can’t get back to sleep. So you start worrying about how tired you will be when you do actually wake up in the morning — if you ever manage to sleep again, that is — and before you know it it’s 4 a.m. and you’re still tossing and turning. Now you’ve convinced yourself that you have forgotten how to fall asleep. Your sleeping mechanism is broken and you are doomed to becoming a living zombie. You wake up your husband to tell him about Elwood, the party you weren’t invited to, how you’ve forgotten how to fall asleep, but he’s already asleep again before you finish your sentence. It is now 5 a.m. The baby is crying in the other room, husband is still sleeping soundly, and it’s time for you to wake up. Oh wait, you never slept in the first place!

Well, there’s always tonight.  At least you won’t be wondering  about Elwood.