The Library of Congress archives: Erin Blakemore. June 15, 2017. “Why the Library of Congress Thinks Your Favorite Meme Is Worth Preserving.” Smithsonian. www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/library-of-congress-meme-preserve-180963705/. (No author cited.) (No date cited.) Web Cultures Web Archive. Library of Congress. www.loc.gov/collections/web-cultures-web-archive/.
full-time jobs in advanced memology: Justin Caffier. May 19, 2017. “Meme Historians Are an Inevitability.” Vice. www.vice.com/en_us/article/meme-historians-are-an-inevitability.
Our meme dissertators from 2014: Whitney Phillips and Ryan M. Milner. 2017. The Ambivalent Internet. John Wiley & Sons.
“The ostensibly unfinished”: Limor Shifman. 2014. Memes in Digital Culture. MIT Press.
sixty times larger: 5.5 million English Wikipedia articles. Wikimedia Foundation. February 25, 2018. “Wikipedia: Size comparisons.” Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Size_comparisons.
Though fanfiction existed: Anne Jamison. 2013. Fic: Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World. Smart Pop.
They’ve gathered on blogs: Estimates as of February 2018: 3.6 million works on Archive of Our Own. archiveofourown.org/. 8.1 million works on Fanfiction.net extrapolated from: Charles Sendlor. July 18, 2010. “FanFiction.Net Member Statistics.” Fan Fiction Statistics - FFN Research. ffnresearch.blogspot.ca/2010/07/fanfictionnet-users.html. fffinnagain. November 23, 2017. “Lost Works and Posting Rates on fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own.” Sound Interest. fffinnagain.tumblr.com/post/167805956488/lost-works-and-posting-rates-on-fanfictionnet-and. destinationtoast. January 2, 2016. “2015 a (statistical) year in fandom.” Archive of Our Own. archiveofourown.org/works/5615386. Thanks to fffinnagain and destinationtoast for personal communication on calculating fanfic stats. Wattpad representatives did not respond to several requests for clarification about what their reported numbers meant, so stats from Wattpad are not reported here. Gavia Baker-Whitelaw. January 21, 2015. “Tumblr Launches Tool to Measure the Most Popular Fandoms.” The Daily Dot. www.dailydot.com/parsec/tumblr-fandometrics-trends/.
Chapter 8. A New Metaphor
I searched for “English language”: Getty Images, Shutterstock, iStock, Adobe Stock, Pixabay, Bigstock, Fotolia, StockSnap.io, Fotosearch, ImageZoo, Solid Stock Art, Pexels, Crestock, Alamy, SuperStock, Stock Photo Secrets, Depositphotos, Thinkstock, Stock Free Images, Unsplash. Compiled by cross-referencing several lists of top stock photo sites and removing sites that didn’t return at least ten results for “English language.”
neuroscientists invoke computers: Gary Marcus. June 27, 2015. “Face It, Your Brain Is a Computer.” The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/opinion/sunday/face-it-your-brain-is-a-computer.html.
Wikipedia only has articles: Wikipedia Foundation. As of March 2019. “List of Wikipedias.” Wikimedia. meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias.
Google Translate supports: Google Translate: Languages. translate.google.com/intl/en/about/languages/. As of March 1, 2018.
Major social networks: (No author cited.) (No date cited.) “Localization.” Facebook for Developers. developers.facebook.com/docs/internationalization. (No author cited.) (No date cited.) “About the Twitter Translation Center.” Twitter Help Center. support.twitter.com/articles/434816.
Even relatively substantial national languages: Jon Henley. February 26, 2018. “Icelandic Language Battles Threat of ‘Digital Extinction.’” The Guardian. www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/26/icelandic-language-battles-threat-of-digital-extinction.
versions of these statistics: Google Translate listed 103 languages in both August 2016 and March 2019; Wikipedia listed 283 active languages in August 2016 and 293 in March 2019.
Nonetheless, users are still figuring out ways: https://www.theringer.com/tech/2018/11/5/18056776/voice-texting-whatsapp-apple-2018.
Popular culture and internet culture: Molly Sauter. July 31, 2017. “When WWW Trumps IRL: Why It’s Now Impossible to Pretend the Internet Is Somehow Less Real.” National Post. nationalpost.com/entertainment/books/book-reviews/when-www-trumps-irl-why-its-now-impossible-to-pretend-the-internet-is-somehow-less-real.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Index
The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. The link provided will take you to the beginning of that print page. You may need to scroll forward from that location to find the corresponding reference on your e-reader.
abbreviations, 30, 58, 87
acronyms
emoji used in lieu of, 185
history of, 10–11
in Jargon File, 72–73
as polite hedges, 123
and Pre Internet People cohort, 95
social, 11–12, 48
adolescents. See youth
Advice Animals memes, 244–47, 250, 257
aesthetic typography, 127–28
“af” (as fuck), 31
“afk” (away from keyboard), 72
African Americans
appropriation from, 4, 164–65
coolness associated with, 22, 51
and creative respellings, 25–26
“double clap on syllables,” 172
and spread of language between cities, 31
age
and adoption of new vocabulary terms, 32
and internet usage, 85–86
and technological interruptions, 219
and telephone norms, 218
Alcanter de Brahm, 133
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll), 175
all caps
to convey emphasis, 115–16, 118–19
to convey shouting, 72, 116, 118
in early computing, 118
in formal vs. informal texts, 118–19
and Full Internet People cohort, 83
historical use of, 116
and minimalist typography, 145
routine correspondence written in, 117
twentieth-century precedents for, 152
All Things Linguistic blog, 142–43
America Online (AOL), 239–40
Android devices, 182
Angelfire, 78
AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), 78, 79, 99, 213, 217, 226
Appalachia, 50
Apple, 182
Arabic and Arabizi, 51–55
ASCII art, 175–76
asterisks, 127–28, 138
Atlas of North American English, The, 19–20
attitudes, 40–62
alignment with/against those in power, 40–41
and appropriation of language, 50–51
bias for previous standards in, 44–47, 49
and class effects on language differences, 41–45
and political aspects of grammar, 47
strength of social identity, 50
Austin, J. L., 187
authorship, shared, 261–62
avatars, 156
“b4” (before), 72
“bae” (babe; before anyone else), 22, 51, 135–36
Baron, Naomi, 204
Bashwiner, Meg, 64
Bazin, Hervé, 133
BeerAdvocate, 31
Behold the Field meme needlework of author, 252–54, 259
Bell, Alexander Graham, 201
birthday emoji, 166–68, 173
blackface, 165
Blinkenlights, 255–56
blogs, 34–35, 73, 224–25
book metaphor for language, 265–69, 273–74
boyd, danah, 81–82, 102, 103, 232
“brb” (be right back), 72
Brennan, Amanda, 260
Brennan, Susan, 121–22
British English spellings, 46–47
Brown, Kara, 172
“btw” (by the way), 72, 74
Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes), 68
Cambridge Analytica, 22–23
Canadian spellings and pronunciations, 40–41, 48
Carpenter, Nicole, 79
Carroll, Lewis, 175
case
in formal language, 152
initial caps, 145
Ironic Capitals, 134, 138, 147
and minimalist typography, 139–50
for social/internet acronyms, 11, 48
cat videos/pictures, 190, 241–44, 246
Cedergren, Henrietta, 28–29
chain emails, 77, 255
Chambers, J. K., 40
Charlemagne, Emperor, 2
chat messaging
CB Simulator model in, 211–12
Internet Relay Chat model in, 68, 212
at intersection of written and informal language, 214–15
overlap in, 209–10, 212–14, 215
polite fictions in management of, 219
in professional contexts, 217
as pure informal writing, 215–16
real-time aspects of, 217–18
social norms surrounding, 219
status messages on, 226–27
as third place, 228
turn-taking in, 211, 212
utterances in, 110–11
children and the internet, 82–83, 100. See also youth
Choi, Mary H.K., 186
cities, spread of language between, 31
clapping hands, 171–72
class effects on language differences, 41–45
cliques, dialect differences in, 38
columbusing, 51
commas as separation characters, 96, 112, 113
complexity of messages, 57–58
compound words, 48
context collapse, 103
conversations, 197–236
fluid norms of, 198
and greetings in emails, 204–7
interruptions in, 209, 215, 219
needs met in, 199
phatic expressions in, 200–207
and telephone etiquette, 201–3
turn-taking in, 207–9
videocall/videochat, 219–20
See also chat messaging; third places
copyright, 262
correspondence, analysis of, 33
co-speech, 166, 172–73
court cases, emoji in, 193–94
“crash” (my computer crashed), 74
Crystal, David, 26–27, 91, 143–44, 204
“cu l8tr” (see you later), 72
cultural appropriation, 50–51, 164–65
Cummings, E. E., 152
Curzan, Anne, 45–46
Darics, Erika, 125–26
dashes as separation characters, 96–98, 111–12
Davis, Claire, 58
Dawkins, Richard, 238–39
debate memes, 247
Denham, Henry, 133
Denis, Derek, 59–60
dialect mapping, 18–26
dictionaries, 265–67, 268
Dictionary of American Regional English, 19, 20
Dictionary of the English Language, A (Johnson), 266
digital immigrants, 88
digital natives, 76–77, 84
digital residency, 100
diglossia, 52
disappearing content, 104, 222–23
doge meme, 248–49, 250
dot dot dot (ellipsis points), 96–98, 107–8, 111–13, 114, 150
Dresner, Eli, 185–87
Drouin, Michelle, 58
Dutch language, 56
early adopters, 73, 81
Eckert, Penelope, 27
Edison, Thomas, 201
Edmont, Edmond, 18–19, 61
eggplant emoji, 162, 164, 167, 172–73
Eisenstein, Jacob, 23–24, 55, 185
ellipsis points (ellipses), 96–98, 107–8, 111–13, 114, 150
emails
chain emails, 77, 255
editing of, 215
greetings in, 204–7
as second place, 228
third places mediated through, 223–24
usage trends of cohorts, 89–90, 92–93, 94
Wired Style’s discussion of, 87
emblems, 159, 161–65
embodiment, digital, 156–57, 185, 188, 191–93
emoji, 155–95
advantages of, 184
compared to a language, 157–58
in court cases, 193–94
as cues about intention, 186–87, 192, 194–95
details conveyed by, 192
and digital embodiment, 156–57, 185, 188, 191–93
and dynamic communication, 157
emblem gestures, 161–65, 167, 172–73
facial expressions, 185
history of, 167, 173–84
illustrative gestures, 166–68, 173
as indication of active listening, 189–90
most commonly used, 14
new additions to, 182–83
popularity of, 157, 182, 191
and Pre Internet People cohort, 95, 98
repetitions in, 170–72
and Semi Internet People cohort, 90
standardization of, 163, 181, 183
success of, 191–92
with taboo meanings, 162–63, 167
term, 180
used in combination, 168–70, 172, 173
variation among platforms, 163, 167, 181
and virtually hanging out, 189–90
Emojination, 183
Emojipedia blog, 163
emoticons
as cues about intention, 186–87
emoji used in lieu of, 185
emoji’s advantages over, 184
and Full Internet People cohort, 83
gender-based use of, 35
in handwritten postcards, 97
in Jargon File, 72
origins of, 176–78
and Pre Internet People cohort, 95
and Semi Internet People cohort, 90
and Snapchat, 164
emotion in informal writing, conveying, 74–75, 107–8
English language(s)
and Arabizi, 51–55
book metaphor for, 265–69
and British spellings, 46–47
and Canadian spellings/pronunciations, 40–41, 48
displacement of other languages, 270–71
fast rate of change in, 36–39
Epstein, Brandon, 251
Esperanto, 191
ethics of internet-based research, 22
exclamation!compounds, 131–32
exclamation marks, 123–25
exclamation marks, inverted, 133
Facebook
American adults using, 85–86
and Cambridge Analytica controversy, 22–23
founding population of, 79–80
and Full Internet People cohort, 79
name treatment for, 48
in non-English languages, 270
and Old Internet People cohort, 74
and platform switching, 103
and Post Internet People cohort, 93, 100
and Pre Internet People cohort, 93
real names used on, 80
status updates on, 222, 227, 229–34
and strong/weak ties in, 39
third-place functions of, 228
time spent on, 222
usage differences among cohorts, 81
vaguebooking on, 232–33
Facebook Messenger, 213
FaceTime, 94
Fa
gyal, Zsuzsanna, 38
Fahlman, Scott, 177, 178
familects, 26–27, 38
fanfiction, 262
faxlore, 255, 256
FidoNews, 75
First Wave of internet people, 65–75
Fixing English (Curzan), 45–46
Flickr, 129
flirting, 105–6
flower-in-hair kaomoji, 179
formal language/writing
disembodied nature of, 13
and effects of informal language use, 58
in essays, 195
expectations for, 14–15
gesturing in, 12–13
and informal/formal language mix of youth, 59–60
punctuation of, 152
and time to revise, 110
forums, 68
founder effect, 65
Freeman, Nina, 79, 80
friendliness, conveying, 124
friendships on the internet, 63, 74–75
Friendster, 103
Full Internet People cohort, 78–84
and context collapse issue, 103
and email, 90, 92–93
and memes, 246, 252
social function of internet for, 77, 78, 82, 100, 103
typing skills of, 122–23
“fyi” (for your information), 72
Gawne, Lauren, 159, 160
Gchat, 86, 100, 213, 217
gender, 33–35
GeoCities, 78, 79
geographic coordinate tags on Twitter, 23
gesturing
co-speech function of, 165–66
emblem gestures, 161–65, 167, 172–73
in formal/informal speech, 12–13
illustrative gestures, 166–68, 173
movement conveyed by, 192
repetitions in (beats), 171–72
gifs
customization of, 14
emblems displayed with, 164
emoji’s advantages over, 184
as emotional currency, 190
as indication of active listening, 189
Gilliéron, Jules, 18
Gmail, 182
Godwin, Mike, 239, 251
Godwin’s Law, 239, 251
Goldman, Eric, 193
Google Docs, 49
Google Groups, 69
Google Hangouts, 213
Gosling, Ryan, meme based on, 245, 247
grammar checkers in word processors, 45–46
Grant, Harley, 144–45
“gr8” (great), 149
Great Good Place, The (Oldenburg), 220
greetings, 200–207, 235
Grieve, Jack, 24
Because Internet Page 34