OMG! A modern written language
Not sure if anyone still reads this, but I came across an article today that ties a lot of stuff together.
Apparently Kent State (home to the infamous shootings in 1970) is studying the language of telecommunication (text messages, IMs, blogs, Facebook, etc.) as a form separate from English. Reminds me of when they started teaching ebonics in Oakland. Anyway, whereas ebonics is primarily a spoken language, I think apart from those Cingular commercials (TISNF), the language of IMs is exclusively a written language. Relatedly, the article refers to modern technologies like the cell phone and internet applications like Facebook or Myspace as writing technologies. It almost makes sense, given the exponentially shrinking time between writing technologies (codex to printing press to typewriter to computer and on) that we could be approaching a new episteme.
On the other hand, I don’t agree that text-speak is a different entity from English, and studying it as such separates it from the oral/imaginary, in a time where it seems we are actually trying to return to the imaginary. And those writing technologies are actually just new uses of old ones (the phone and the computer–although interestingly, Steve Jobs (Apple) is the man behind popular versions of both). But regardless, it’s quite an interesting development in print study.
Lastly, I never really had a reason to post about this, but the other day I was reminded that “please” is often called “the magic word.” I’m not sure what that means, but someone else may have something to say about it
–Brandon