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Internet Slang
It is described as the use of shorthand language used by different persons on the internet
for easy communication. It also may be referred to as chat-speak, net-speak or cyber-slang. The
slang originated back in the days after the origination of internet in October 1962 (Leiner 2). It
originated so as to safe on time and key stroke. It is now used in texting and on the social
network in writing (Kleinman 15).
Some of the advantages of internet slang include: it reduces the task of formal writing
and speech, replaces the convectional synonym and decreases the key strokes as the users are
familiar with the code words (Barseghyan 26). In addition, it uses the minimum number of
characters to convey a message hence saving on time as well as capitalization, punctuations and
grammar can be avoided. It is also used by people of higher responsibility and status as a tattoo
term.
However, internet slang has its negative effects. Firstly, it has acted as a language
destroyer (Lilenko 54). Since it is made to be used without the concern of grammatical rules, it
has led to the use of grammatical errors by students without their recognition. This has been
easily delivered into the real life communication thereafter causing an improper language lesson
on them (Gridchin & Ani 25). Secondly, it has brought about misunderstanding in various kinds
of people as different forms of internet slang are being created by different people for each of
their own use (Brignall III & Thomas 341). It also raises a crisis where same words may be used
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in designing the slang but have different meanings (Greiffenstern 23). Hence, these brings about
a situation in which these people completely don’t understand each other. Consequently, it has
resulted to a generation gap. This has been between the young people and the old persons. The
young generation has gradually been informed to understand the internet whereas it is too late for
the old people to learn the same (Kim 324). Hence it serves as a disadvantage to the old as it
would be difficult to study on the same.
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Work Cited
Gridchin, Aleksandr, and Ani Nazaryan. "THE INFLUENCE OF INTERNET ON LANGUAGE
AND" EMAIL STRESS"." FACTA UNIVERSITATIS-Law and Politics 4 No 1 (2006):
23-27.
Leiner, Barry M., et al. "A brief history of the Internet." ACM SIGCOMM Computer
Communication Review 39.5 (2009): 22-31.
Kim, Yeora. "The impact of the Internet on children's daily lives: Physical, social and
psychological well-being." Diss Abstr Int 64 (2003): 324.
BARSEGHYAN, Liana. "On some aspects of Internet slang." Graduate School of Foreign
Languages N 14 (2013): 19-31.
Kleinman, Zoe. "How the internet is changing language." BBC News 16 (2010).
Lilenko, Vladimir. Word-formation and semantic mechanisms in English Internet slang and
memes creation and its impact on the Russian language. Diss. Tartu Ülikooli Narva
Kolledž, 2013.
Brignall III, Thomas Wells, and Thomas Van Valey. "The impact of internet communications on
social interaction." Sociological Spectrum 25.3 (2005): 335-348.
Greiffenstern, Sandra. The influence of computers, the internet and computer-mediated
communication on everyday English. Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH, 2010.
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