Where I am going with this

Reading Review Part A 

What might I want to study in this course?

Here's my google history for this afternoon:

> media literacy
> what is digital literacy
> what is web 2.0
> what is after web 2.0
> what is semantic web
> internet linguistics
> adhd thought process
> relatable adhd memes
> david crystal internet linguistics
> gretchen mccullouch because internet
> wired magazine linguistics
> lingthusiasm podcast
> voldemorting
> seo
> economist linguistics technology
> hackers movie quotes
> hacker manifesto
> phrack magazine
> what is populism
> darvo
> Goebbels strategy
> Big lie
> Goebbels accuse the other side
> internet regionalism
> memespeak

My main intellectual hobby is linguistics and the study of language. Applied linguistics, specifically Teaching ESL, was my concentration in my first undergrad degree. Later, I used every opportunity for self-determined research projects to focus on language. I even managed to create a blog on this very platform, where I wrote university-level linguistics papers for fun.

And yet, I had no idea going into this assignment what I was going to focus on. Maybe on how to identify fake news? Or how to stay safe online? It wasn’t until I got to ‘semantic web’ (which itself has nothing to do with linguistics per se) that I twigged to the idea that I could investigate some ideas around internet language—how has the internet changed English and global languages?

Where does ‘I can has cheezburger’ fit in grammatical study? Are emojis really ruining language? How do different generations express themselves online linguistically? How is internet slang appropriated from black and LGBTQ users? Is there a racial or racist aspect of internet-speak? What happens to regionalism and socio-linguistics when applied to the “flat”, democratized world of the internet? The Hacker Manifesto written by The Mentor (Loyd Blankenship) reads: “We exist without nationality, without religious bias… and you call us criminals.” The rise of populism indicates that the internet can as easily separate us as unite us. But how does linguistics figure? Or, what about the doublespeak and DARVO and the Goebbels strategy of “accusing the other side of what you yourself are doing”—no, no, no, I don’t really want to get into that. Fascinating, yes, but bigger than I can manage. Let’s get back to linguistics. Internet slang, effects of the internet on spoken and written language… that might be interesting. Diminishing regionalisms? Is our language now like all the American suburbs…starting to look all alike? I want to put a border wall up against concepts like confirmation bias and echo chambers. I don’t want to study interpersonal communications so much as grammatical and etymological evolution. 

I think this is where I’m going. I'm not sure yet what it has to do with Teacher-Librarianship. There seems to be enough literature on the topic to dive into. The next phase will be sorting meaningful information from online noise and narrowing down an angle of focus. 

Comments

  1. TLNyquistJanuary 25, 2021 at 12:03 PM

    This is a very interesting idea. I am excited to see where you go with this!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aaron MuellerJanuary 26, 2021 at 6:12 AM

    I agree, this is super interesting and has a lot of applications to supporting students and their own language development and implementation. Belonging to a 'super community' of the internet, where everything is remixed and re-made all the time (Bernie Mittens?) what impact does this have on shared understanding and meaning? I loved your search term list and found many engaging potential terms like "voldemorting". I appreciate the inclusion of the Hacker Manifesto and the understanding and awareness of information access as an important right. Lots of fascinating rabbit holes to dive down and report back with what you've found. Narrowing and focusing will definitely be the next phase of your search. Perhaps focus on one or two concrete examples and terms and go from there?

    ReplyDelete

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