Would our great grandfathers understand the language we speak today?

One of the main lessons I drew from the last Friday’s class was the differences in language use in traditional and computer mediated communication. With increased speed of communication and the lack of physical cues in some modes of CMCs (for example instant messaging), we have resorted to increased use of abbreviations, emoticons and symbolic representation of objects and the like to fill the void. My concern, however, is that with increased diversity and different interpretations of such netlingo, would it lead to greater miscommunication?

As an extension, other than viewing netlingo as a fourth medium of communication (Crystal, 2001,), I would also suggest that the use of CMCs can be looked at from a “cross-cultural point-of-view”. On one side, we have people who have limited interaction with (or use of) CMC. On the other, the tech savvy group with exposure to all new netlingo additions and influences of CMC. Issues like differences in their way of communication via either traditional or computer-mediated methods can be looked at. For example, do people with high exposure to CMC vary in their way of making email requests in contrast to people with little exposure?

The rise of computer-aided communication has brought about a whole wave of issues that we should be concerned with. Other than security issues, the way that we look at communication has also been changed dramatically. Thus, this would serve as an excellent opportunity for us to better understand our evolving environment more.