Language in the Chat Room

A great deal of Crystal's explanation of Netspeak offered examples from multi-user dungeons and chat rooms. While it is important to study the development of Netspeak, I found the focus on these less-popular technologies to be outdated. Perhaps this is merely a reflection of the changing nature of technology - a nature that published books often struggle to capture.

In Always On however, Baron describes a new prevailing view of chatrooms. She notes that while popular during the 1990's in the United States, they are now viewed as 'creepy' and not appealing (Baron, p 23). She suggests that educational MOOs and instant message buddy lists have replaced the chatroom. Another possibility is the prevalence of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, which do not have chat room components.

While understanding the historical development of the terms is useful, as an educator, I am more interested in the current development of Netspeak and how it affects language and writing in the classroom. Reports that text abbreviations are creeping into students' writing suggests we examine the function of literacy using the ecological perspective, as Barton advises. There is no sense to dismiss text abbreviations as not having communicative value in the classroom, but teaching students appropriate times to use such shorthand in the school context is worthwhile.