Writing and the Internet

[raven_estrella]

I'm still in my linguistics class, and last week we talked about language on the computer.  My textbook said that writing on the Internet is somewhere between speech and more "traditional" writing. It also said that on the Internet, grammar and spelling mistakes tend to be ignored. People just do things however the heck they want. Obviously, that's

Comments

[madhowan]

I love the internet! I like proper grammar, and I get annoyed if I spot really obvious mistakes, but I do enjoy "macro" speak, if it's not being used seriously. I make jokes in LOLcat speak, but I don't like to talk like that normally. (I don't write "2" and "u" and "r" in normal text messages, unless I'm being silly.)

And my blog, I suppose, at least lets me practice writing--not necessarily always short stories--which can't hurt in terms of wanting to be a writer.

[raven_estrella]

Exactly! The more writing, the better--and if blogging helps people write more, that's great. That's why in my final assessment, I'm inclined to embrace writing on the Internet. I do sometimes abbreviate in text messages. My phone stinks for text messaging, and typing it out would take forever. One guy in my class did his final project on text messaging.

I love LOLcat speak. : ) My sister uses it, and then I try to copy her. Recently, she said "deets" for "details." It cracked me up.

For my linguistics class, did my final paper on the way people talk in TV commercials. It was really interesting. Sometimes the announcers seem to fake accents. For what purpose, I'm not really sure.

[madhowan]

I wrote a blog for an assignment that was all about how blogs were ace. But someone else wrote theirs, essentially saying that blogs were crap (I believe their words were "the lowest form of scum"), and people who wrote them had nothing better to do. I was incredibly insulted. But mollified when their links to examples of these weren't actually blogs, but news articles from trashy tabloid websites.

My dad tries to talk in "gangsta" speak, which is highly amusing. I had to explain to him about "po-pos" being the police, and now he uses it a bit. I love all stuff like that, though--like "what's the haps?", etc.

We have ads like that, too. There's one terrible one where they're trying for an E! news type thing, but their fake accents are so atrocious that it's just so off-putting. I think we get a lot of American ads, too, because they change the voiceovers so that they're Australian voices, but it's so obviously done.

[raven_estrella]

That's hilarious that they try and change the voiceovers to sound Australian. I bet it seems so dumb. It's kind of like the way they switched narrators on the American version of BBC's Planet Earth. The British version has David Attenborough, and everybody likes him better. We're just fine with that original British version, dang it! Do you think you would mind if they kept those ads with the original American voices?

That's also funny how your dad tries to incorporate slang into his speech. My friend and I try to talk "gangsta" sometimes, and whenever we do, it just ends up sounding ridiculous!

I also had a friend tell me that blogs are a total waste of time, that they're not worth anything, and that they're pointless. Well, thanks for your humble opinion, but I think I'll keep blogging. My philosophy is that it lets me talk with people who I wouldn't get to talk with otherwise--so why not?

[madhowan]

Why on Earth would you dub over David Attenborough? He's the king of nature documentaries. (Seriously, he is one of those people you just expect to be around forever--I was so sad when he retired.)

I don't think I would mind, no. I watch that many American shows that occasionally I'll forget they've got any sort of accent anyway, and then someone with a British or Aussie accent will come in and mix it up a bit! I'm sure that there'd be a few voices that grate, but that's the same with everywhere. We've got plenty of irritating, nasally Aussie accents around!

Not ridiculous... we're all just... keepin' it real? *is sad, fo shizzle.*

Exactly! Where else can you meet people all over the world--who have the same interests--and for so little cost? I love my LJ--I talk to people online more than most of my school friends.