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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
informative
medium-paced
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
I am the kind of person who uses semicolons when I text. And not ;), semicolons because sometimes you need to link together two related phrases without a conjunction and you can’t bring yourself to stoop to the level of a comma splice. Unrelated: I’m fun at parties.
Gretchen McCulloch doesn’t cover semicolon obsession in Because Internet, but she does shed some light those digital-exclusive linguistic flourishes—the triple emoji, ~sparkle irony~, and even that moment when you need to undo something that autocorrect did in order to give your message a more cohesive aesthetic—that you’ve certainly seen on the internet (on this very website, in all likelihood) even if you don’t use them yourself.
In six long chapters, McCulloch traces a brief history of internet communication, from the early days of Usenet and social acronyms, through ASCII art and the various nuances of lol typographies, to the seeming out-of-nowhere ubiquity of emoji and the evolution “meme” from an obscure sociological concept the thing that is the cancer of the internet and/or the only way you communicate with your friends.
One of the criteria with which I judge nonfiction (possibly unfairly) is its ability to teach me something new, and Because Internet was full of new things for me to learn, like the fact that adding periods to your texts makes you sound angry and that there’s a lolspeak translation of the Bible, which might be a great tool for evangelizing if it wasn’t the closest thing we have to proof that God doesn’t exist.
I could see it argued that the book is too optimistic about the internet and how it’s changing language (McCulloch only briefly mentions that infinite capacities for harm that language and the internet have when working together), but first, the author is a linguist, and second, dwelling overlong on the negative aspects of internet language (as interesting as that would be) is not in this book’s scope. Because Internet exists to be excited about language, and will necessarily see all changes as innovations and all innovations as exciting (as is the descriptivist’s way).
After finishing this book, am I still the kind of person who uses semicolons when I text? Yes, but now I also don’t use periods. I am so sorry.
Gretchen McCulloch doesn’t cover semicolon obsession in Because Internet, but she does shed some light those digital-exclusive linguistic flourishes—the triple emoji, ~sparkle irony~, and even that moment when you need to undo something that autocorrect did in order to give your message a more cohesive aesthetic—that you’ve certainly seen on the internet (on this very website, in all likelihood) even if you don’t use them yourself.
In six long chapters, McCulloch traces a brief history of internet communication, from the early days of Usenet and social acronyms, through ASCII art and the various nuances of lol typographies, to the seeming out-of-nowhere ubiquity of emoji and the evolution “meme” from an obscure sociological concept the thing that is the cancer of the internet and/or the only way you communicate with your friends.
One of the criteria with which I judge nonfiction (possibly unfairly) is its ability to teach me something new, and Because Internet was full of new things for me to learn, like the fact that adding periods to your texts makes you sound angry and that there’s a lolspeak translation of the Bible, which might be a great tool for evangelizing if it wasn’t the closest thing we have to proof that God doesn’t exist.
I could see it argued that the book is too optimistic about the internet and how it’s changing language (McCulloch only briefly mentions that infinite capacities for harm that language and the internet have when working together), but first, the author is a linguist, and second, dwelling overlong on the negative aspects of internet language (as interesting as that would be) is not in this book’s scope. Because Internet exists to be excited about language, and will necessarily see all changes as innovations and all innovations as exciting (as is the descriptivist’s way).
After finishing this book, am I still the kind of person who uses semicolons when I text? Yes, but now I also don’t use periods. I am so sorry.
So. Much. Booklove! I want to shove this in the hands of practically everyone I know online, b/c most of my friends are nerdy, wordy people who will LOVE this look at the Internet.
This was really fun! You’ll learn about emojis, and what kind of internet person you are, and all kinds of interesting tidbits about internet-mediated language.
An interesting look at linguistics in the context of the internet.
informative
slow-paced
I really liked this and found it fascinating, but this took me a month and a half to get through. I found it interesting, yet still would fall asleep within 5 minutes of reading. But MCulloch sheda a lot of light on internet linguistics (now I know why I feel the compulsion to use exclamation points all throughout my work emails) and kept the book fun and light.
I loved this book. Thinking of language as a dynamic thing was so interesting. Gretchen used so many examples that made me want to keep reading. I feel like I learned a lot. I'm grateful for her voice and books like these