Growing up, I was told that "text lingo" or "internet shorthand" would be the death of correct grammar and eloquent speech. In reality, it has evolved into a language of its own that has shaped the way children of younger generations communicate on social media platforms. Being a part of one of the youngest generations alive today, I've noticed a few changes in the way that teens, like myself, communicate through social media. Yes, we type in a manner that is grammatically correct and yes, we type in a way that anyone speaking our language will be able to read. However, we've created a way to convey sarcasm, we've created ways to convey innuendos and sexual connotations behind our text using simple punctuation, we have even created ways to express surprise without clearly typing "this is unbelievable". Anyone from an older generation can say that the way we type is lazy, but the way my generation types is a new language. We have adapted to a fast-paced, electronic world, that makes it difficult to display certain archetypes of speech that could be lost in text. So, we created ways to type to convey the archetypes of speech that are more difficult to spell out.
Here are a few examples and simultaneous breakdowns of what I mean:
Situation 1: You explain to your best friend that today in your 8 a.m. math class that not only did you have a pop quiz, but that the older gentlemen sitting next to you spilled his coffee all over your calculus textbook, (that cost you around $160.00 just to rent) and you don't know if you will be able to return it -- leaving you one-hundred sixty dollars in the hole. Now your friend, resonating with your pain, replies with this:
omg, awesome!!!!!! SO GREAT!11!1!!11!!!!
The most noticeable difference about the above text is the overuse of an exclamation point (!). Not to mention that it looks like while typing, a finger may have slipped from the shift key, allowing the numeric (1) into your series of exclamation points. This displays sarcasm. A genuine excitement would not bring about a plethora of exclamation points with numerical digits jabbed into it. In plain sight we also see that the words "awesome" or "great" would not be used to react to this situation, this is an example of how we communicate sarcasm through simple keyboard typing. If you were using an electronic device which carried the abilities to use emojis, someone could simply put a heart-eyed emoji to display they love what was said, which in this case would be a sarcastic comment towards the above situation.
Situation 2: You see a picture of a girl on twitter, you realize while looking at this picture that you could never take a picture so ethereal. Because you're a girl that likes to hype other girls up instead of tear them down, you decide to Quote Tweet it (to repost with another caption) and say:
Art. Irrefutable art, I could never,,, I am truly, honestly shook. Like--things she did? THAT. Like, girl
"I could never," is a statement claiming that you couldn't do a task that is completable, it is a statement said about something that is impossible for you to complete. When looking at a picture of Lupita Nyong'o, glowing like an ethereal being, one could say "I could never," meaning they could never live up to the bar set by Miss Nyong'o. The use of the three commas in a series can be used stylistically or as a way to dictate a longer pause. And the last sentence, and I use that term loosely, seems to be unfinished. This shows a reader that what you are truly speechless.
Those are two examples of how my generation uses a much different typing style than our older counterparts to communicate on social platforms such as Twitter or Tumblr. This piece was written for fun, and I do love explaining to people the ever-evolving life of language. It is an insanely deep topic that can take you from the english translations of The Bible and see if they are truly accurate or even the U.S. Constitution and the language being used to decipher the true meaning of our founding fathers. It's something that I encourage everyone to research for themselves, but feel free to upvote my first post and reply with what you thought about it. This is the tip of the iceberg obviously, and I will answer any and all questions regarding this post!