The Impact of the Internet on the Development of Language
The creation of the Internet resulted in a revolution of languages and communications, as a whole. The revolution had completely changed the way the world was connected, making it smaller and giving a new form of influence & power to the people who know how to use it. The Internet offers a foundation for boundless imagination and creativity as it allowed different societies to be immersed within foreign cultures and practises that would have otherwise been impractical and difficult to achieve by means other than through the World Wide Web.
However, change at a colossal scale tends to stir the rise of opposition, which, in a linguistic perspective, has a handful of groups believing that the Internet promotes language deficiency and a threat to national borders through globalization and hegemony. According to David Crystal, language was already changing at a slow pace, prior to the invention of the Internet. The Internet only sped up the process to the point where it became clearly noticeable. After all, language is an open system – change is inevitable.
The English language will be focused upon in this writing since English is the language of the Internet in terms of its interiority and exteriority – its programming languages, such as Java, C++, and Python, have their roots in the English language. Using Crystal’s idea of the Internet as its own sub-category in linguistics, The World Wide Web can effectively be analysed through three different perspectives: sociolinguistics, education, and application. The social linguistic approach deals with how society views the impact of Internet development on languages – the Internet has revolutionized communication in many ways; i...
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...tain in traditional settings, especially by people who do not share community traits, such as multiracial individuals and marginalized ethnic groups, have been possible through the Internet.
Although many believe the Internet is a breeding ground for language shifting and degradation, there has been no direct evidence of such cases – only theories. Without a doubt, the Internet has enriched languages by adding new words and forms of language. Not only have these additions enriched the English language, but also affected cultural identity. The Internet has transformed the way people do things, think, and communicate with one another for the sake of efficiency and speed, thus reshaping and evolving language as a whole. Also, the Internet has enriched languages and allowed minorities to reclaim their linguistic heritage, as discussed through the applied perspective.
Rhetorical Questions - In the fifth paragraph of this essay MacNeil ask rhetorical questions like "Is our exposure to social media wiping out regional differences and causing us all to speak the same? Is the language really in serious decline?" Including these questions in the paper helps convey consideration regarding the reason for the
Language has been said to effect culture and a person’s way of thinking; in addition to culture effecting language. Throughout the last 100 years there have been apparent and subtle changes in the English language. The changes an English speaking person may see throughout their life time are different catchphrases, the way language is written, the type of formality used, and how deeply English is affected by cultures; as well as how it effects other cultures around the world.
One of the most critical needs of a civilization is communication. In the past, communication was presented by means of both oral and written forms. Unfortunately, this form of communication is slowly beginning to fade with the invention of the Internet.
Amy Tan’s piece ‘Mother Tongue’ highlights the divide in society between ‘Englishes’, specifically formal, academic English and everyday usage. Her piece also comments on the way the internet holds a place amongst these so-called ‘Englishes’ as her words are presented through the medium of a blog and emphasises that all forms of English are useful. While some situations have ingrained standards that demand a certain style of communication, other forms like spoken English or the internet that are traditionally downplayed in their importance are still useful in understanding our society. Styles of language found in academic works are considered to be more important than other styles, but this is a hegemonic and elitist view which should be ended.
We did not become who we are over night; humans have evolved through many years. Language is the tool that developed our culture; it is so powerful and we can’t take it for granted. The seminar explored how our language tools came to be, it identified the issues using these tools for the good or evil. This tool shapes our identity creating knowledge and cultures.
In this modern era, technology is dramatically developing and evolving at an astounding rate. The advancement in technology affects almost every aspect of today’s society. The English language is a prime example of this. Linguists from different universities have begun noticing changes in the modern English language; most of the alterations tend to be significant. The English language has been negatively affected by the rise of the Internet, smartphones and social media.
Languages are continually changing and developing, and these changes occur in many different ways and for a variety of reasons. Language change is detectable to some extent in all languages, and ‘similar paths of change’ can be recognised in numerous unrelated languages (Bybee, 2015, p. 139). Since users of language all over the world have ‘the same mental processes’ and ‘use communication for the same or very similar ends’ (Bybee, 2015, p. 1), similar changes occur on the same linguistic aspects, and in many cases these changes produce similar results in multiple languages. However, language change is limited by the function it performs. Languages must be learnt to such an extent which allows communication between the generation above and below one’s own (McMahon, 1994, p. 5). Hence language change is a gradual, lethargic process, as only small changes in
Since the Industrial Revolution, technology has permeated and become an integral part of our everyday lives. In fact, a life without technology seems almost impossible to imagine. Almost everyone, around the globe, has access to technology in one form or another. Consequently this type of technology has become ingrained into our culture. Its roots are so deep that it is now peculiar to see someone without a smartphone than with one. Consequently, smartphones and the Internet have radically changed the manner in which we communicate and how we communicate with one another. Our speech has metamorphosed so much from that of our grandparents that it almost seems like a foreign language due to the incorporation of slang and “text talk.” With the sudden surge of email, blogs, and instant messaging that occurred within the last couple of decades, the impact that technology has on our linguistics has become more pronounced. Technology has helped to bridge the gap between people by allowing us to communicate as easily as we breathe. On this note, one would think that the dawn of the Era of Technology would give birth to a renaissance of the English language but, instead, the converse is taking place. With such widespread prevalence of technology such as smartphones and computers, the degradation of the English language is a problem now more than ever.
In this day in age, there is an abundance of technology and a multitude of ways people can communicate with one another. Language is a way to express one’s identity and speech norms, while different language ideologies can influence someone’s behavior. Digital communication reflects general properties of language use and provides new possibilities for cultural interaction. To address how digital language can reflect the general properties of language, I will use my own personal experiences and examples of “dating” within digital communication. These examples will address changes of medium, different structures, and the ideologies associated with the media.
The technological revolution of the late twentieth century has arguably caused some of the greatest changes in the global society. Few realize the full effects of the computer age. The Internet in particular has brought the corners of the world closer together. Even in the most remote areas of the globe, such as Katmandu, one can see an advertisement for e-mail (Stefik 235). One might begin to wonder what the social consequences of this pervasiveness are. The Internet brings many diverse groups of people together to participate in many aspects of life from trade to conversations. Some might wonder if these interactions might lead to an end of diversity. In chatrooms and instant messages, the push towards uniformity in style is undeniable. However, this change is far from limited to these small areas of the Internet.
Internet as a medium has been a thoroughly discussed topic, especially in recent years with the rise of the World Wide Web. Analysis of relevant literature in the topic shows that the internet is not a new medium. This argument can be shown by looking more in depth into what defines a medium and what defines the internet. From that analysis by looking from a historical point of view the internet can be seen as an old medium which uses re-mediation to deliver content to users. The connection between internet and its users has helped the internet influence the way media is viewed today. Although the internet is not a new medium the content it presents is new. The advances in technology have helped the use of the internet reach new heights in terms of interest and it's capabilities are now being utilised by the masses. This rise in popularity has given the implication that the internet is new. These points can be analysed in more depth which has led me to take the stance that the internet is not a new medium.
Language is a form of verbal communication via words and its pronunciation that is used and comprehended by various people of the same nation, culture, or geographical background. It has been said to be dated back as far as one thousand years ago before writing. Like culture, language is passed on through the process of enculturation. Meaning that it is something that is learned (Kottak, 101). In the video, “TED TALK: Texting is killing language,” Ted starts off the video by saying that “The idea is that texting spells the decline and fall of any kind of serious literacy, or at least writing ability, among young people in the United States and now the whole world today (Ted, 2013). Throughout the film discussion, what stuck out to me the most was how drastic language has changed via technology. Although Ted disagrees with the above statement, in my opinion, I believe that a language can be altered if it is changed by enough speakers and writers. With the constant use of various forms of technology, communication via texting has become a very popular leisure activity for people all o...
The internet is a total of mediums which are connected between them with channels of communication. The internet is actually an internet after it connects to smaller networks of many countries. The internet rouses the computer and the world of the communications like nothing else before. The invention of the computer, of the telephone, of the telegraph etc, set the stage for this unprecedented completion of faculties. The internet becomes right away a world capable radio broadcast, a mechanism for the distribution of information and a means for the cooperation and the interaction between the individuals and their computers, being indifferent to the geographic place.
With the birth of the Internet roughly twenty-five years ago, came a new medium for language use; and, thus, a new public for sharing and exchanging information. In a society that is largely information and technology driven, new communication and screen-based technologies have become the culturally diverse ways of acquiring knowledge and developing cognitive styles through literacy around the world. Meta-communicative technologies, like popular social media sites and other virtual communication platforms, are the contemporary institutions of the public sphere where people navigate social relations, exchange information and construct competences by participating in different forms of literacies.
In order to visualize the “global” as an adjective in the collocation “global language”, a study has shown the numbers of people speaking the language. According to them, there are about 6000 languages in the world and not surprisingly English is at the top of the list of most dominant. In the world there are 375 million first-language speakers, approximately the same number of second-language speakers and about 750 million foreign-language speakers (David Graddol, The Future of English? A Guide to Forecasting the Popularity of the English Language in the 21st Century. British Council, 1997). According to magazine Economist, more than one billion people speak some form of English. These numbers could make people think that English is really conquering the world which can be both positive and negative.