I recently read Ariane Sherine's article in The Guardian about the exclamation mark and how 'text talk' is a "crime." Firstly. it was posted in August 2008 so perhaps in the two years since then she may have grown out of her naivety. I doubt it. Before I go on, feel free to read her article here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/03/comment-and-debate-punctuation
The first thing that struck me upon reading this is how overtly she is part of the problem I tackled in my earlier post: "The Mannerless VS The Forgotten Generation." It is clear to me that the English Language is one of the many topics that serve as an avenue for people to convey their snobbery. I have no problem with other people venting their opinions, except when they are wrong. She talks with such overt arrogance I find it offensive. Before reading her article I had no idea that there was a 'board of language' somewhere in England - probably Buckinghamshire - that meet up and decide what's right and wrong about other people's use of language, while they sit on thrones, eating foie gras and olives, casually spitting the stones into the mouths of their working class servants. Ariane Sherine is chairwoman of this committee; she carries a solid gold dictionary, a sign reading "I went to grammar school therefore i'm better than you" and wears a hat made from the skin of the local comprehensive schoolchildren. The small mindedness in which people all to readily criticise the various uses of language and its development is ridiculous.
Language evolves in time like everything else - except perhaps time itself - and does so for a number of reasons. It is clear that the written and spoken word is culturally reflective and holds a beautiful insight into the societies in which we live in. All too often change is seen as a bad thing and is criticised for being incorrect. The attitude of "Why fix it if it isn't broken?" is so boring. I say look at it, congratulate it, smash it up and try and make it better. It seems to me that people from certain generations are so content with stagnation and what they like to call 'tradition' that they continually try to squash development. Language is no different from technology, in fact it is technology. Evolution is what life is all about, we all evolved from apes - some more than others (Susan Boyle) - and who knows what we'll develop to in the next hundred millennia, but language will be a fundamental part of it. By all accounts I agree with her point that;
"All writers, avid readers and logophiles have at one point sighed in incredulous frustration at some scrawled misdemeanour, from misspelt signs to graffiti ardently declaring "JACK LOVE'S RACHEL."
This is just incorrect every way you look at it - it is not evolution, it is stupidity. Sherine's article claims to be targeting the overuse of the exclamation mark and gets an article in The Guardian for it! The Guardian!!!!!!!!! That's ridiculous!!!!!! My gripe with her article is her secondary topics of 'text talk', abbreviations and emoticons. She describes them as "textual atrocities" and gives the example of 'OMG' amongst others, likening them to 'viruses'. She is blind to the beauty of them. I bet she read Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange" gagging, with a red marker pen in hand, a frown on her face and a Collins Dictionary ripped to shreds on the floor while she tries frantically to check all the spelling mistakes. I'm sure that she didn't stop once to marvel at the genius of this manipulation of language.
Language is powerful, beautiful and fascinating. It is the original form of problem solving, people often say "anything is possible if you just talk about it" and this is so true. In modern day society we are constantly being given more and more innovative platforms to do just that - talk. From forum posts to blogs to a well worded tweet we can talk to thousands of people in an instant. The word 'instant' is the operative word there, we are required to express information as fast as possible. It is the ways of the world that are influencing language, not an age group or social class that people may suggest. Social media is the fastest information tool around and is a competitive market (nobody is reading this for example). Ultimately the challenge set is to say as much as possible in as few characters as you can. Is this not a brilliant thing, social media is challenging people to use ingenuity with language and drum up interest. There isn't time to write how people used to, if I wanted to inform a friend that I would be seeing them later, I would not write:
"Oh dearest acquaintance of mine, I would like to take this opportunity to inform you that later on this fine day I shall indeed convene with your wondrous self."
I'll write: "cul8r."
Done, in a fraction of the time! The same information is sent, the same plans have been made and everyone knows about it faster. Sherine also tackles the idea of an emoticon. Is she the most depressing person ever? :( poor Sherine. An emoticon is genius, its a tiny piece of art in an otherwise literary world. Even if you don't use them yourself, it is sometimes nice to receive one, or create your own. In this fast paced world it is difficult to convey emotion a lot of the time, an emoticon solves that problem brilliantly. The evolution of language is part of the evolution of society not the death of it. I say write how you want, write what you want and have a good laugh doing it.
So tnx v much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :P
Monday
Getting started on Twitter
Time to Tweach Twitter to Twits
Recently I have been posting more opinionated, informal articles and getting nowhere. The following is merely a 15 step guide to Twitter to help people out when they get started. Hopefully someone will find this helpful!
1. Let’s go! Visit www.twitter.com and click on the ‘Get Started – Join!’ button and let us begin. Enter a username, password and email address, then click ‘I accept’ and then, ‘create my account’.
2. Friends? Twitter will now ask you to invite your friends, if you have any! These will be imported from one of the supported services: Googlemail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL or MSN.
3. You’re in. Let’s sort out your stuff out. On your Twitter home page, click the link that says ‘settings’. Pan down the page and enter your full name in the appropriate place and check all the other fields are in order. You can also enter your website here which will be visible on your profile. Don’t check ‘protect my updates’ as this will limit the amount of people seeing your tweets as only those whom you approve will see them!
4. What do you look like? Click ‘settings’ and then also click the subheading, picture. You’re picture can be anything from your ugly mug to a cartoon, but try to get something noticeable, you’ll be amazed how many people will click a picture that provokes interest.
5. Give a dog a phone! Twitter is great if you’re on your phone. Once more enter the world of ‘settings’ except this time click on the ‘mobile’ tab. On your phone, add a contact called Twitter and save the number 86444. Now text the word START to this number, and you should receive a confirmation that it is set up – now you can tweet everywhere! (note: Twitter does not charge for this service. It's just like sending and receiving text messages with your friends — your carrier's standard messaging rates apply.)
6. Follow some Fellows. Go to the ‘find people’ tab in the top right of the page. Here search for people you know, friends, family, celebrities, companies, whoever you think is on Twitter. You can search for them using their first name, last name, or Twitter username. You can also do a much more advanced search i.e. by location – its not necessary though! If you want to, you can now ‘follow’ the twitterers who appear on your search results. Now you can see what they tweet on your homepage!
7. Time to tweet! Think of your home page as a room full of people, it’s a conversation. When you want to say something, write it in the box at the top saying “What’s happening?” When you’ve written it, all the people who follow you will read what you have written. That’s a tweet!
8. Replies. If you want to reply or direct to your tweets to one person in particular but want everyone to see what you’ve said add a little @ symbol before their Twitter name and then say what you want.
10. Hash can be good for you! Hash keys (#) are like forums or questions. If you create a hash key comment, everyone who enters the same hash key will have their tweet shown collectively. Then, when someone clicks the hashkey, all results talking about the content will be visible on one page. These are known as trending topics, and the ones with the biggest following are shown at the side of your home page.
12. What to Tweet? Content is arguably the most important thing to master. There are certain tweety traditions that you’ll notice the more you use Twitter. The language is a blend of proper English and informalities. I think Twitter itself has its own jargon of sorts. Try to get someone’s attention through a funny line, interesting quote, or shocking yet inoffensive tag line. Remember that each tweet is a self-branding tool; so think about how you want to be perceived. Also – Be Careful. Don’t say “going to the shops quickly, kids alone in the house asleep on sofa so won’t be longer than an hour.” Mind you- probably shouldn’t be doing that anyway.
13. Retweets! This is what you want. A retweet is when something you say is enjoyed so much by one of your followers that they decide to pass the information on to their followers using a retweet. This means that what you’ve said reaches everyone who can see your profile and everyone who reads the person who’s retweeted it! A retweet is almost like a little award, obtaining one can snowball and before you know it you’ve reached hundreds maybe even thousands of people! To retweet someone else’s content should you choose to, look under the post you want to do it to and click the button saying “retweet” – job done! By retweeting others people should be appreciative and take more notice of what you are saying. Remember, do onto others as you wish done onto you.
14. Links. By posting links, whether a youtube video, article or funny story, people will start to look to you for more of the same. Due to the 140 character limit URL’s can often take up too many. This is why URL shorteners have been created. I personally use bitly.com but there are others out there. Simply visit www.bitly.com and enter the URL you want to relink on twitter into the box provided. For instance;
15. Pick your Pics. Although not fundamentally appreciated for sharing pictures, that’s Facebook territory, Twitter does offer this function. To do so, visit www.twitpic.com and log in using your Twitter account. Here you follow the instructions to upload pictures from your computer, when it says ‘post this’ if you do, a link will automatically be tweeted on your Twitter account. Excellent.
Recently I have been posting more opinionated, informal articles and getting nowhere. The following is merely a 15 step guide to Twitter to help people out when they get started. Hopefully someone will find this helpful!
1. Let’s go! Visit www.twitter.com and click on the ‘Get Started – Join!’ button and let us begin. Enter a username, password and email address, then click ‘I accept’ and then, ‘create my account’.
2. Friends? Twitter will now ask you to invite your friends, if you have any! These will be imported from one of the supported services: Googlemail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL or MSN.
3. You’re in. Let’s sort out your stuff out. On your Twitter home page, click the link that says ‘settings’. Pan down the page and enter your full name in the appropriate place and check all the other fields are in order. You can also enter your website here which will be visible on your profile. Don’t check ‘protect my updates’ as this will limit the amount of people seeing your tweets as only those whom you approve will see them!
4. What do you look like? Click ‘settings’ and then also click the subheading, picture. You’re picture can be anything from your ugly mug to a cartoon, but try to get something noticeable, you’ll be amazed how many people will click a picture that provokes interest.
5. Give a dog a phone! Twitter is great if you’re on your phone. Once more enter the world of ‘settings’ except this time click on the ‘mobile’ tab. On your phone, add a contact called Twitter and save the number 86444. Now text the word START to this number, and you should receive a confirmation that it is set up – now you can tweet everywhere! (note: Twitter does not charge for this service. It's just like sending and receiving text messages with your friends — your carrier's standard messaging rates apply.)
6. Follow some Fellows. Go to the ‘find people’ tab in the top right of the page. Here search for people you know, friends, family, celebrities, companies, whoever you think is on Twitter. You can search for them using their first name, last name, or Twitter username. You can also do a much more advanced search i.e. by location – its not necessary though! If you want to, you can now ‘follow’ the twitterers who appear on your search results. Now you can see what they tweet on your homepage!
7. Time to tweet! Think of your home page as a room full of people, it’s a conversation. When you want to say something, write it in the box at the top saying “What’s happening?” When you’ve written it, all the people who follow you will read what you have written. That’s a tweet!
8. Replies. If you want to reply or direct to your tweets to one person in particular but want everyone to see what you’ve said add a little @ symbol before their Twitter name and then say what you want.
Eg: “@rustyrockets you’re new DVD is very much overrated!”
Those twitterers not following you or rustyrockets (Russel Brand) will not see what’s been said, but everyone else will. Using the @ symbol you can also reference people to get their attention.
Eg: “I’m going to grab lunch at Pizza Express with @wossie and @ladygaga”
This would attract the attention of those mentioned and anyone referenced. Referenced accounts are also clickable links so anyone who sees the name mentioned are able to click it and find their way to the page, thus being able to choose to follow them as well – Genius!
9. Lets get direct! Twitter also offers direct messaging. This can be done by clicking the “direct message” tab on the side of the profile of whoever it is you want to message. Alternatively, you can write “d” and then the name of the twitterer to send a private message to their twitter inbox on their homepage. Direct messages are private and can only be seen by the users that are involved.
10. Hash can be good for you! Hash keys (#) are like forums or questions. If you create a hash key comment, everyone who enters the same hash key will have their tweet shown collectively. Then, when someone clicks the hashkey, all results talking about the content will be visible on one page. These are known as trending topics, and the ones with the biggest following are shown at the side of your home page.
Eg: “#favouriteboysname” is David from one person would show up on the same page as “#favouriteboysname is Michael”.
11. Tweet twice as much! Now you’re familiar with what’s really going on, start tweeting properly. The first thing to remember is that you can’t write anything longer than 140 characters. This might not seem like many, but it’s more than enough! Be brief, be snappy, be clever.
12. What to Tweet? Content is arguably the most important thing to master. There are certain tweety traditions that you’ll notice the more you use Twitter. The language is a blend of proper English and informalities. I think Twitter itself has its own jargon of sorts. Try to get someone’s attention through a funny line, interesting quote, or shocking yet inoffensive tag line. Remember that each tweet is a self-branding tool; so think about how you want to be perceived. Also – Be Careful. Don’t say “going to the shops quickly, kids alone in the house asleep on sofa so won’t be longer than an hour.” Mind you- probably shouldn’t be doing that anyway.
13. Retweets! This is what you want. A retweet is when something you say is enjoyed so much by one of your followers that they decide to pass the information on to their followers using a retweet. This means that what you’ve said reaches everyone who can see your profile and everyone who reads the person who’s retweeted it! A retweet is almost like a little award, obtaining one can snowball and before you know it you’ve reached hundreds maybe even thousands of people! To retweet someone else’s content should you choose to, look under the post you want to do it to and click the button saying “retweet” – job done! By retweeting others people should be appreciative and take more notice of what you are saying. Remember, do onto others as you wish done onto you.
14. Links. By posting links, whether a youtube video, article or funny story, people will start to look to you for more of the same. Due to the 140 character limit URL’s can often take up too many. This is why URL shorteners have been created. I personally use bitly.com but there are others out there. Simply visit www.bitly.com and enter the URL you want to relink on twitter into the box provided. For instance;
http://funnyjokesblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/why-men-are-never-depressed.html would take up far too many characters, but when put into bitly.com it becomes;
http://bit.ly/8UFxFn
Much better.
15. Pick your Pics. Although not fundamentally appreciated for sharing pictures, that’s Facebook territory, Twitter does offer this function. To do so, visit www.twitpic.com and log in using your Twitter account. Here you follow the instructions to upload pictures from your computer, when it says ‘post this’ if you do, a link will automatically be tweeted on your Twitter account. Excellent.
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