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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced
The only reason why this book has taken me so long to read is simply because I bought the hard back version and it's not portable at all. I WANTED to read it, but why lug it around on public transport when I can just carry my ereader? Anyway i got over myself ant took it with my on the bus and mrt and finished it in two days. Super fun book! It's got me excited about communicating online and about texting and memes and emojis! It was putting into words something all these internet issues that were never covered in my uni's linguistics courses. My favourite tidbits are how people "correct" their keysmashes, how *shell emoji *palm emoji *sun emoji works as a response to show to let the speaker know you are paying attention to their beachy topic. Also the author is really likeable and nerdy, just like most people interested in linguistics (me & ma frendz)
Read this one for book club. I have a hard copy and listened to the audio as well, which was a great combination. McCulloch is an enthusiastic and personable narrator. The book itself is fascinating, and holds up, I think, surprisingly well given the insanity that has become social media since the text was originally published. Actually, I think large portions of this book helped me contextualize a bit more why different people in my life interact the way they do online, especially between generations. Given that all of this was written and published prior to the era of Trump and all the fallout that’s come from that, lots of what was written helps explain where and how wires of communication may be crossed, and why certain styles of communication impact different generations the way they do. A great book for any lover of language, but I’d also recommend it for anyone with a desire to start contextualizing how we got where we did, and to consider what may come next as we navigate how communication online shapes us.
informative
medium-paced
ngl I was hoping for a linguistic analysis of all the different language quirks we have online, like "because _____" which is even in the book's dang title, but I didn't get that. Instead it's more of an overview of phenomena like emoji, memes, capitalization/punctuation online, etc. It was a good book, though!
I picked up this (audio)book primarily hoping for a look at how different generations are inclined to write (think: emailing with students vs. older colleagues), and how miscommunications can happen. There was a bit of that, but SO much more.
For starters, the author points out that, while spoken language has always has formal (speeches, TV newscasters, etc) and informal (fast conversations among friends) versions, writing has always been extremely dominated by more formal versions. Even personal letters in the pre-digital era usually exhibited a certain level of formality and "thoughtful composition" that don't really mirror an animated conversation among close friends. Truly informal, rapid-fire, unedited, conversational writing (think: texting, IM/chatting, etc) essentially only became prominent in the last couple decades, and along with it a fairly new, pressing need to efficiently communicate tone and gestures and other nonverbal cues. A good chunk of this book explores those techniques and norms and shortcuts, taking them seriously from a linguistic perspective. She also turns this perspective on emoji, memes, and other "internet culture" topics.
This book was fun, funny, fascinating, and fast-paced enough for my short attention span (never lingering over-long on any topic). The author read the audio version – she did fantastic (with authentic nerdy enthusiasm), and I can’t imagine it succeeding any other way (with all the silly voices and internet jokes, and even some authorial asides/tidbits specific to the audio version).
Highly recommended!!
For starters, the author points out that, while spoken language has always has formal (speeches, TV newscasters, etc) and informal (fast conversations among friends) versions, writing has always been extremely dominated by more formal versions. Even personal letters in the pre-digital era usually exhibited a certain level of formality and "thoughtful composition" that don't really mirror an animated conversation among close friends. Truly informal, rapid-fire, unedited, conversational writing (think: texting, IM/chatting, etc) essentially only became prominent in the last couple decades, and along with it a fairly new, pressing need to efficiently communicate tone and gestures and other nonverbal cues. A good chunk of this book explores those techniques and norms and shortcuts, taking them seriously from a linguistic perspective. She also turns this perspective on emoji, memes, and other "internet culture" topics.
This book was fun, funny, fascinating, and fast-paced enough for my short attention span (never lingering over-long on any topic). The author read the audio version – she did fantastic (with authentic nerdy enthusiasm), and I can’t imagine it succeeding any other way (with all the silly voices and internet jokes, and even some authorial asides/tidbits specific to the audio version).
Highly recommended!!
Dude, awesome. So good! You don't need to have an interest in linguistics to enjoy this book-- anyone who has used the internet for any amount of time, regardless of how "internet-savvy" they consider themselves, will surely enjoy it. McCulloch puts words to the cultural development that happens online in a way that's witty, aware, and highly entertaining. Definitely worth a read, or at the very least, check out McCulloch's linguistics podcast, co-hosted with Lauren Gawne, "Lingthusiasm".
