Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language
Language is humanity's most spectacular open-source project, and the internet is making our language change faster and in more interesting ways than ever before. Internet conversations are structured by the shape of our apps and platforms, from the grammar of status updates to the protocols of comments and @replies. Linguistically inventive online communities spread new slang and jargon with dizzying speed. What's more, social media is a vast laboratory of unedited, unfiltered words where we can watch language evolve in real time.
Even the most absurd-looking slang has genuine patterns behind it. Internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch explores the deep forces that shape human language and influence the way we communicate with one another. She explains how your first social internet experience influences whether you prefer "LOL" or "lol," why ~sparkly tildes~ succeeded where centuries of proposals for irony punctuation had failed, what emoji have in common with physical gestures, and how the artfully disarrayed language of animal memes like lolcats and doggo made them more likely to spread.
Because Internet is essential reading for anyone who's ever puzzled over how to punctuate a text message or wondered where memes come from. It's the perfect book for understanding how the internet is changing the English language, why that's a good thing, and what our online interactions reveal about who we are.
Author: Gretchen McCulloch | Publisher: Riverhead
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Rating: 4.25 / 5
Big thanks to Riverhead for sending me a finished copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
“Language is a thing that lives in the minds of individual humans at individual points in time, a thing that can’t be fully encompassed in a static list of rules like a game of chess.”
Things to know about me for context in this book review: I am a grammar and usage nerd. I love to read about linguistics (the study of language, its structure, and how people use it), especially in the context of the internet. (The social signals and understanding behind when it’s “right” to use one, two, or three exclamation points is fascinating to me.) I also write longform marketing content for a living. So, yeah, this book was written for me.
And, as expected, I loved it. Gretchen McCulloch is (as you would hope, with this subject matter) conversational, fun, and very in touch with internet trends and spaces. She brings relatable examples together with smart research to make clear what so-called “internet people” can naturally sense but not explain.
She explains that this is the very first time in history that informal language has ever been written or recorded. Before, speech may have been informal, but pretty much all occasions to write — essays, news, speeches — were more formal. And this informal writing isn’t replacing formal writing; it’s working alongside it in new and fun ways.
“No one is writing in a formal context, “omggg wtf the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell [4x laugh emoji]” any more than a hundred years ago people were writing, “Oh my heavenly stars, the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, isn’t that just the bee’s knees!!!!”
In particular, she made some really good points that made me think, yes, that’s exactly it! Two stand out in particular. First was her point about teenagers today, and how everyone assumes that they’re obsessed with their smartphones. But since the beginning of time, teenagers have been looking for ways to connect in spaces separate from adults. They hung out in malls and talked on the phone for hours. Those kids grew up to spend normal amounts of time at malls and on the phone, because they were no longer under watch — they gained the ability to decide when and how often they see their friends, and so relaxed a bit. In her words, teenagers aren’t obsessed with their phones; they’re obsessed with each other.
And second, she was able to pinpoint exactly why it sounds like someone is angry if they end a text message with a period. Just like a question mark indicates that your voice is rising at the end of a sentence?, a period indicates that your voice is falling. That you are punctuating your speech with down-voice, and that you are very serious. And yes, that’s exactly it!!
I also really enjoyed the chapters on emojis and memes, and learning about how the year you “joined the internet” impacts the way you use the internet and how much you understand about its language.
All in all, this was the perfect nerdy read if you love to learn about language, and if you love the internet. Which, if you’re reading this blog, is probably you.