One thing I pay keen attention to when writing articles for PCMech is not to use internet jargon (a.k.a. slang or “netspeak”). The only time I would use it is only if I’m forced to.
Internet jargon can easily turn into a bad habit quickly. And as anyone knows, bad habits are tough to break. If your use of jargon gets out of control, it will make you look stupid. Furthermore, communications will be more difficult.
Example of everyday internet slang: ppl
Translated: people
Example of forced internet slang: Twitter
Translated: Microblogging
The slang is forced because if I say “microblogging”, nobody understands that. But if I say “Twitter”, people do. And yes that bothers me but that’s the way it is.
How does jargon make you look stupid?
- It gives off the impression that you have absolutely no idea how to spell anything correctly.
- It gives off the impression that you’re lazy.
- It gives off the impression that your intelligence is no more advanced than that of a nine-year-old child.
Nobody wants to appear to be an uneducated lazy child-like person.
How does jargon make communications difficult?
Internet jargon is primarily American in origin because it’s predominantly based on the English language – but that doesn’t mean English speaking people will magically know and understand what you’re saying. Slang is a language of sorts unto its own. You write slang to save time, but all that time is wasted if you have to literally translate everything you say.
If you avoid jargon entirely (or at least try to), the chances of you being misunderstood decrease dramatically.
Also bear in mind that the internet commands a worldwide audience. If you author your own web site or blog, avoid the slang so those from other countries can understand you.
Four things you can do to avoid jargon
1. Don’t use texting-speak on the internet.
When people send text messages to each other on their cell phones, words are shortened purposely to take up less space.
For example, if you are going to the grocery to pick up a few items, on a cell phone this may appear as:
going to market be back later
If you’re sending this via e-mail or instant messaging, type it out entirely.
I'm going to the market and will be back later.
2. Do not replace words or parts of words with numbers.
Using the above example, some would type “going to market” as “going 2 market”.
Don’t do that.
If the entire example phrase above was done using numbers, it would appear like this:
going 2 market b back l8r
As you see, when more numbers are added this can quickly turn into something completely unrecognizable by those who don’t know internet slang. Someone not familiar with the slang would get confused and think, “Is he going to two markets? What’s the ‘b’ for? What’s the #18 and the ‘r’ for? Is that an address?”
Some may say, “There is absolutely no way someone could possibly misunderstand that.”
Believe me, there are many who wouldn’t have the first idea what the phrase literally means.
3. Avoid spelling things phonetically.
In the example phrase, “be” was shortened to “b”. This is a phonetic spelling (i.e. “sounds like [this]“) and it’s obviously incorrect because “b” is a letter and not a word.
It gets even worse if you use characters instead of actual letters.
Example:
do u want 2 meet @ market
Translated:
Do you want to meet at the market?
If the message was sent via cell phone, yes I can understand the value in shortening words with numbers and/or characters. But if this were an e-mail or instant message, that’s just plain laziness because you have a full computer keyboard at your disposal.
4. Avoid service names to describe an action.
Example: “I’m going to Flickr it.”
Translated: “I’m going to take a photo and post it to my Flickr account.”
There is the possibility the person you’re communicating with may have absolutely no idea what Flickr is or even what it represents. For all that person knows, “Flickr” could mean anything.
What you should say instead is, “I’m going to take a photo of it.” There is absolutely no confusion as to what that sentence means. You are going to take a photo of it, whatever it was that the two of you were talking about.
How do you feel about internet jargon?
Do you converse with people that only communicate in “netspeak”? It is something you can deal with or does it bother you?
Let us know in the comments.
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Using service names to describe actions can even have legal ramifications. The Official Google Blog has a nice article about using Google as a verb:
I agree, using stuff like that is /very/ unprofessional. I can understand it easily, though, even l33tsp34k (elitespeak, though it’s not terribly elite
).
Personally I don’t use much ‘netspeak’, though I do use acronyms such as ‘brb’ (be right back) ‘btw’ (by the way), and the ever-dreaded and over-used ‘LOL’ (laugh out loud) – though not to the point that I look like an idiot (lol I use this all the time lol I love this blog lol lol – not like that at all).
Really, the only time I use things like that are in IM conversations, though LOL sometimes gets through to my Twitter account and other things, as well.
I’m typically the same as vertimyst. Most of the time I use it for laughs on a forum or something. If it is an instant messaging conversation with a friend who knows what it means, then I will likely use some netspeak. However, I never use it in a blog post.
LOL GMTA
Come on….we all do it occasionally. I see more “geek speak” in PCMech as anywhere on the internet. How many times have we gotten lazy and used acronyms when should have spelled someting out. How is a newbie supposed to know what a PSU or a HSF is?
ROFLMAO!