Tabblo: Yet Another Example
As I'm sure is the case for most people here, instant messaging has greatly impacted the way I communicate with family and friends online. Nearly every time I'm online, I have AIM up in a window, and I talk to people. Normally they're pretty informal discussions, with icons, abbreviations, and incomplete sentences being common, I still put some thought into the things that I post. I also have Yahoo Messenger, and though I use it less often, it was still instrumental over winter break for allowing me to talk to my girlfriend for cheap over the phone while she was on vacation in Israel.
(Note: This is a totally random picture of AIM I found on Google images that has absolutely no relation to my screen name or the screen names of anyone I talk to.)
... See my Tabblo>
I have posted some of the ways I use the internet to communicate with text on my Tabblo, but I'm sure I could also include the Tabblo itself, as well as this blog. In many ways, these tools have vastly changed the way we take notes and keep records. I've noticed people mentioning passing paper notes in class in their blogs this week, and instant messaging in particular has become a modern version of that. I always think about those paper notes whenever I see someone tapping away at their cell phone keypad during class. But as Birkerts says in one of the articles for this week, the recent explosion of the use of the internet as a communications medium corresponds with language erosion (Birkerts, 70). It seems like wherever I go online, there are people who seem to have forgotten the basic rules of spelling and punctuation. In essence, the internet makes shorthand communication more necessary and easier in some cases with the use of icons and abbreviations. However, this isn't to say that language degredation always happens. After all, printed words are printed words, whether on paper or screen, and printed books are technology too (Landow, 218). In fact, in some ways computer technology can enhance text, as illustrated by Landow's example of the poem My Brother Was a Pilot, as recreated in Macromedia Director (222).
Comments
I agree with you and I like the thought that passing notes to one another and how IMing is the modern version of that. I believe that this is true.
I also agree with you that punctiation and incomplete sentences is getting worse with IM, posting, texting, and other forms of communication. I just feel that as long as your point gets across I think it's not a big deal. I mean a lot of people might be concerned but I like to think of it as the signs of the times. If there is a miss spelling or if punctuation is not used properly it shouldn't be a huge deal.
Posted by: Harpal (Paul) Thind | March 25, 2007 11:28 PM