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“On July 28th, 2009 Skynet achieved self-awareness …”
Parents and grammar nazis tend to flip out at instant messaging — because they worry the technology is ruining kids’ ability to write correctly. All those short forms! WTF! OMG! We’re breeding a nation of illiterates!
So I was intrigued to find a study of teenage IM chat that found that nu-wave short forms comprise a mere 2.4 per cent of their communications. University of Toronto professor Sali Tagliamonte spent two years examining the IM chats of 71 teenagers — collecting over 1 million words. The result? Behold the periodicity of these following common short forms:
Frequency per 100,000 words:
LOL — “laughing out loud”: 195
omg — “oh my god”: 107
brb — “be right back”: 31
ttyl — “talk to you later: 30
btw — “by the way”: 22
nvm — “never mind”: 7
gtg — “gotta go”: 5
np — “no problem: 4
nm — “not much”: 3
lmao — “laughing my ass off”: 2
Hardly the sort of linguistic rot we’ve been led to believe, eh? “There’s a misconception this is sloppy and ruinous,” as Tagliamonte told the Toronto Star. “It’s not. It demonstrates kids are really creative with their language. It’s a medium that lends itself to brevity so they have developed these short forms.”
Mind you, I’m not suggesting that too many kids these days aren’t blithering illiterates. I regularly receive bleak, bleak reports from friends of mine who teach high school or even first-year college classes. But me, I’m old-school: I blame whole language. What a total train-wreck of a pedagogical approach.
I'm Clive Thompson, a writer on science, technology, and culture. This blog collects bits of offbeat research I'm running into, and musings thereon.
Currently, I'm a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and a columnist for Wired magazine. I also write for Fast Company and Wired magazine's web site, among other places. Email or AOL IM me (pomeranian99) to say hi or send in something strange!
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My Bookforum review of Jaron Lanier’s “You Are Not A Gadget”
Molecular secrets of the “iron-plated snail”
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January 31, 2010 » 07:29 PM
V. A. To me death seems to be an evil.
M. What, to those who are already dead? or to those who must die?
A. To both.
M. It is a misery, then, because an evil?
A. Certainly.
M. Then those who have already died, and those who have still got to die, are both miserable?
A. So it appears to me.
M. Then all are miserable?
A. Every one.
January 24, 2010 » 03:22 PM
One of the more interesting trends is family, which came in at number five. Specifically, discussion about family, moms, dads, daughters, etc. jumped during 2009. With Facebook users getting older, this isn’t a big surprise. However, the fact that the mention of “kids” jumped by a factor of five this year is rather dramatic. It’s tough to know what this means, though. (via Facebook Unveils Most-Mentioned Topics of 2009
)
January 15, 2010 » 01:36 PM
BEYOND AWESOME. They are announcing a recall of the Plush Uterus “due to a potential choking hazard for children”. To apply for it, “Please send an email to the address below with the subject line, ‘UTERUS OPT OUT’”.
January 14, 2010 » 10:04 PM
“To order, please TYPE “YES” IN CHECKBOX BELOW TO AGREE YOU UNDERSTAND THIS PLUSH MUST BE KEPT AWAY FROM KIDS (it is a sex organ, after all). If it is not checked, WE WILL NOT SEND THE UTERUS.” (via @ibogost)
January 11, 2010 » 01:45 PM
I watched Space: 1999 back in the day, but I swear to god I do not remember this scene.
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