#followme

The change in modern communication has been as drastic as the change in our modern technology. Although the professional world worked with typewriters only about 40 years ago, compared to the technological advancements of today, it already has a somewhat ancient connotation. In Dustin&Genevieve's parody of the "Circle of Life",  from the Lion King, they make fun of some common modern attitudes, and the differences in how we tend to communicate ourselves now-a-days (espcially among the younger generations).

We have suddenly become very enveloped in how we portray ourselves online. Selfies are rampant! It has become such a common way to take pictures, that there is even a certain unspoken "right" way to do it. Every once and a while you will come across someone who's selfie obviously looks tacky, or unfashionable, when another person's can look stylish, or even dignified.

How to SELFIE

But appearence aside, pop-culture as a mass, has gotten used to the hashtags flying everywhere online. This, however, was not always this way. The use of hashtags were originally organizing tools used on Twitter. Then, people began to "mis-use" them, as some would attest. At first there was a very black and white following of hashtags. Some people embraced them, feeling that they were a freeing means of communicating more complex or humorous emotions. Some people detested them, and felt offended that people were "ruining the English Language". Then, when Facebook became trendy, the hashtaggers invaded. Many people were, again, outraged. However, as this trend stuck around, debates rose, and people began to wonder if they really were as incorrect as they seemed.

In Muriel MacDonald's article, How #Hashtags Change the Way We Talk (Huffington Post), she demonstrates three points to illustrate their legitimacy. 

1. Hashtags are "paralanguage"
2. Hashtags are our Greek Chorus
3. Hashtags were always meant to mimic speech

She raises the point that hashtags open a new form to demonstrate a self-mocking attitude. It offers a third person view point (narrative's view) on what had been said. It can produce a layer of subtext in which the reader knows the comment was made in a tongue-in-cheek manner. 

She introduces the concept that a hashtag is really a commentary on our own comment. Hashtags make the transition from first person to third. This is not a new concept, since the greeks did this all the time in their writing.

Her final pont is that hashtags are really tools in order to get a more "real life" meaning across in text format. It produces a more accurate atmosphere that the writer was attempting to create. 

"#Hashtag with Jimmy Fallon & Justin Timberlake"

Another way to communicate that has ravaged the informal world, are memes. 

meme

mēm/

noun

1. an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.

   • a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.

To best explain, here is an illustration. One of my personal favorites is the "Y U NO" meme. 

Any meme begins with the original, un-edited photo/graphic.

You then place a funny, commonly mispelled, relateable idea/frustration on the image with the prefix "Y U NO" (meaning, why don't you...)

Here are some examples:

Memes are often used with popular movies, historical figures, or games/shows to add to their humorous effects:

Personally, I love using images to help my meaning come across in text. I view them as elaborate emojis. I often choose cute anime characters to get an emotion across, or save random funny expressions I come across to use as a humorous punchline. For example, if I would usually respond to something my husband says with a show quote, I may send him a picture of that character or a still shot of the scene when he/she said it. He can then, from context, imagine my "real life" response. 

As much as this digital world has offered us a platform to communicate ourselves clearly, I honestly don't know why we still have so many misunderstandings. Laziness? Well, that's a topic for another class ;)

                

What Makes A Word Real?

Anne Curzan, guest speaker in the 2014 TED talks, discusses the origin of common-day words. She relays an inside view into the mind of an dictionary editor, being one herself, and offers that language is determined by the general populous. She presents the idea that, in order to be real, a word would only need to be commonly used among the people.

I agree. She further explains that dictionary editors often feel flustered in trying to keep up with the change in words, and dread placing undeserved importance on words that only become fads in the end. Because of our tech savvy world, new words such as "app", and the prefix "e-" have become second nature. These are commonly used, and have now been counted officially into the dictionary:

-App Definition-

Anne introduces the point that language is not based on personal opinion, only on what is widely used. No matter how absurd a word sounds to a singular person, if it is used, it is indeed a word. One such word formed more recently is "hangry" (hungry+angry). Although, it was most likely begun as a joke, most people understand the meannig, and popularity and common use has increased greatly. In another note, pre-existing words evolve. The word decimate used to mean "to kill one in every ten", but now means to "kill, destroy a large percentage of". No word is safe from the changing of culture.

Humans have a unique ability to continue creating new words, expanding upon what is already existing. If a word is created, and continues to be used, it will eventually become part of the common vocabulary. The general public has always decided which words are real or not, whether they were concious of it or not.