STRONG

Feeling

• ITS SOUNDS LIKE YOURE SHOUTING
• Happier than all lower case
  • CONGRATULATIOOONS
  • congratulatioooons
• Works as emphasis
  • i am NOT happy right now :|
  • ugh he is so CUTE

YELLING over the Internet!!

• Discouraged by early internet guides
• Interpretation is dependent on linguistic context
  • HOME = part of the user interface
  • i wanna go HOME = emphatic tone

YELLING over the Internet!!

Looooooong words

• Earliest use in 1848 and steady increase towards the 1950s-60s
• Goal of lengthening: represent speech in writing
• Most commonly lengthened words are "sentiment words"

(lengthening)

Sentiment Words

• nicccce
• uggghhh
• lmaooo
• ohhhh
• shittttt
• pleasssse
• yaaaaayy

Looooooong words

(lengthening)

• Sensitive to social context
  • ​Private vs. public posts
• Sensitive to linguistic cues
  • ​booooth, bothhhhh, but not botttttthhhh
• Sometimes has no spoken equivalent
  • ​im so dumbbbbb
• Stable feature of digital typography

Other emerging, emphatic quirks

• *bolding asterisks*
  • ​Generally used to emphasize one word
  • "Quieter", but still strong emotion
    • i am furious​ right now
  • Can also be used for non-emphatic, third-person actions
    • *sweats nervously*
• _italicizing underscores_
  • ​Can be used across an utterance or for one word
    • i mean, if he doesn't do it, then.....
    • idek anymore :)))))

Exercise: What is the tone? And how can you tell?

If you received this kind of text, how would you interpret its tone and why? Describe the emotive tone behind each of the texts in the following slide, then list the typographical features used to express that tone (i.e., all caps, elongation, bolding, italicizing, etc.)

Politeness/ Formality

Politeness!! over digital text

• Online and offline politeness are similar
  • Hedge words (btw, afaik, imo)
    • Spelling out vs. abbreviating
      • By the way, can you do this?
      • Btw can u do this?
    • Dependent on "internet situation"
  • Decreases with power

Politeness!! over digital text

• Exclamation points to express excitement, warmth, and sincerity
• Multiple exclamation points have fluctuated in meaning
  • yes!
  • yes!!!!!
• Non-stable feature

• Sounds good
• Sounds good!!!

• Emoticons/Emojis "point" the reader to the desired interpretation of our words
• Emoticons and emojis can soften statements, requests, and rejections

Evoking the Smile Over Text

• Please send it before the deadline.
• Please send it before the deadline! 😊

• May change the meaning of an insult into a friendly joke
  • omg thats hideous
  • omg thats hideous 😂😂😂

• I got the job :)
• i cant rn ;u;
• Pretty please!!! 🙏

Exercise: Which sounds most/least polite? Sort the following texts by your perception of its politeness.

Sincerity & Sarcasm

Sarcasm in digital writing

• Sarcasm has always been difficult to convey in both online and offline writing
• Digital indicators of sarcasm often derived from digital indicators of sincerity
  • Changing meaning over time

#Solidarity thru special digital features

• Reinventing functional and technical tools for more social purposes
• Pseudo-code among older internet cohorts
  • <sarcasm>Today was great</sarcasm>
• *Asterisks* and _underscores_ for younger cohorts
  • registering is ~**~MAGICAL~**~​​

~~Sarcasm tildes~~

• The ~sarcasm tilde~ expresses irony or disagreement
  • Context-based
    • im so ~excited~
  • May come from ~*sparkly tildes*~
  • "Sing-songy" inflection (sooo~~~)

#Solidarity thru special digital features

The # Hashtag as...

• Sarcasm
  • wow waiting 30 minutes just to sign in was so #exciting
• Stance-taking
  • My mom went out of her way to help their family #goodmom
• Paralinguistic cues
  • today is just one of THOSE days #gaaaaHHHH
• Both stance and tone
  • Athens sucks this time of year #out #of #towners

but are u really laughing out loud?

• ​The changing uses/meaning of LOL:
  • Genuine laughter
    • LOL IM DYING RN
    • lolololol 
    • loooooooooooool
  • Ironic/Passive-aggressive pseudo-amusement
    • Oh. I didn't know you were that kind of person lol
    • lol ok
  • Sincere lowkey amusement
    • l o l  ur grandma's wild
  • Social lubricant/"punctuation"
    • thanks for the heads-up lol

• LOL (and emoticons/emojis) as carry-overs from informal handwriting/speaking to informal typing
• Occurs with certain expressions of emotion, but not others

✔️ Flirting, softening, and empathy

• what are u doing out so late lol

❌ Love, directness, and checking in

• i love you lol

but are u really laughing out loud?

• Understanding and use of LOL towards sarcasm due to its overuse
• As we develop ways of expressing sarcasm, we need other ways of expressing sincerity
  • Alternates to LOL
    • hahahaha
    • Ad hoc phrases
      • i legit just spat water all over my phone from laughing

Beyond explicit digital forms (<pseudo-code> & #sarcasm), we needed a range of subtle sarcastic options

• """"scare quotes""""
  • the """""""movie""""""
•  Satirical Brand Names™
  • ​guess we're back to Eternal Suffering™ then huh
• Ironic Capitals
  • ​he's such a good friend, unlike Some People.

Other emerging typographical quirks

minimalist typography

• all lower-case letters with little to no punctuation
  • i am so ready to go HOME rn
  • omg i am  d y i n g
• Earliest use recorded in Netiquette guides from the 1990s
  • "lazy" typing style
• meaning has changed/developed primarily between 2006-2013
  • passive-aggressive, indicates some form of attitude

who uses this and why

• understanding "who"
  • mostly younger people (Twitter and Tumblr users)
• understanding "why"
  • creating new forms of emphasis
    • i think it's really Cool how there are so many ways to express emphasis™  on tumblr and they're all  c o m p l e t  e l y  different its #wild
  • ​for that soft/weird #aesthetic

"i just want to go home" said the astronaut.

"so come home" said ground control.

" s o  c o m e  h o m e " said the voice from the stars.

why type this way?

• Current overall meaning derived from knowing earlier perceptions of typography style and explicit embracing of its use amidst autocap
  • becoming approachable
  • creating space for sincerity
• irony is:
  • a linguistic trust fall
  • time-bound
  • context-bound

Implications for future technolinguistic tools

• Speech-to-text and auto-predict
• Tone-accurate technology

has writing really changed??

• Many typographical features predate the internet
• Formal vs. Informal
• The Internet as the space/medium between speaking and writing
  • Expressive typography imbuing life and personality into otherwise disembodied text

I, for one, think this change is fantastic. Even if this increased attention to typographical tone of voice did mean the decline of standard punctuation, I'd gladly accept the decline of standards that were arbitrary and elitist in the first place in favor of being able to connect with my fellow humans. After all, a red pen will never love me back. Perfectly following a list of punctuation rules may grant me some kind of power, but it won't grant me love.

Love doesn't come from a list of rules - it emerges from the spaces between us, when we pay attention to each other and care about the effect that we have on each other. When we learn to write in ways that communicate our tone of voice, not just our mastery of rules, we learn to see writing not as a way of asserting our intellectual superiority, but as a way of listening to each other better. We learn to write not for power, but for love.

- Gretchen McCulloch, Because Internet, 2019

Additional Activities

Group Exercise: "translate" pls

• Passages
• Reference

Other Activity Ideas