Every class that I have taken has had its own "language". For example mathematics, chemistry, microbiology, and psychology classes all had words that indicated meanings for certain specific functions.  These fields of study could be classified as a sub-culture, since they are within the culture, but have their own unique terms.  Also, dramatic events create new words and acronyms and the incorporation of non-English words into our vocabulary. For instance, during WWII the term "snafu" (Situation Normal-All Fouled Up).  Also, the words "radar" and "sonar" evolved during this time frame, and have now evolved into radiography and sonograms. From the Vietnam War words such as "chopper" and "defoliate" have become adopted into our jargon. Language is an evolving thing and should be viewed as such.  It always has been. Languages evolve as people come together through trade, invasion or simply through the internet.

      The internet, as with any culture or sub-culture, has developed it's own internal language. By that, I mean a shorthand of sorts has emerged in the interests of trying to keep up with four or five conversations at once on ICQ or IM, and to convey inflection to simple statements (e.g. *LOL* or *S*).  Since we are not actually speaking to one another face to face, many of us tend to use regional dialects and graphic images (emoticons), for example: :o) or :o( to indicate mood and how we actually speak to others whom we consider friends.  There is even an Internet "jargon dictionary" online at  Steve Grossman's Online dictionary .

The downside of this is that complete sentences have become short incomplete phrases, and I have noticed that my spelling and grammar skills have deteriorated over the past few years. How this relates to people whose first language is not English can be demonstrated anecdotally by my experience of "chatting" with someone from Sweden. Inadvertently, I "taught" that person the phrase, "Howdy, ya'll", a phrase that I use frequently since I live in the Southern part of the United States. I doubt that my friend would use that phrase, or other "Southernisms" in an actual, real life conversation with another English speaking person. But, it came as a shock to see that I had influenced that person's use of language.

Words from the Internet have pervaded our (English) language via television, billboards and advertising. It seems as if every company has a .com address now and it is "cool" to be "online".   A few years ago "Surfing the net" was an advertising ploy used by one of the Internet providers, and was seen very frequently on U.S. television with actors speaking in foreign languages. I would be interested in finding out if people who speak another language than English have developed their own "shorthand" when chatting in their native language or have the terms become Anglicized?

To address the question of how Internet language has impacted our own language a bit further, it is becoming increasingly difficult to attempt to explain the "internal language" used by people on the Internet to those who are not. Thus, we are back to culture/sub-culture again with "in groups" and "out groups", a sociological term meaning what is important to different groups of people. The older a person is, the harder it becomes to explain what all the acronyms mean and why do we bother with it at all. (No mail, I am one of the older ones) Children are being taught how to use a computer at a very young age, thereby giving them an edge over people that did not have that advantage when they were young. "Netspeak" is a part of their language and will continue to be integrated into normal speech patterns. However, will these children of computers learn proper spelling and grammar skills when there is a spell checker and grammar checker on every computer, or will their skills diminish as my math skills have with the advent of the hand held calculator.

Computers and calculators are marvelous tools, but will the ability to communicate and be understood be decreased or enhanced from "surfing the net"?  In my humble opinion, I think not.

If you need help with what is going on with your computer, look at this site. Internet Glossary . Everything you ever needed to know about your those weird terms, and how to perform a search for information is at this site.  However, if you really need help writing your pages or letters, then the following is an excellent site. Rules of Grammar.

It has been three years since I wrote this page and I truly needed to brush up on grammar skills even with a grammar checker.
 

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