Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language

by Gretchen McCulloch

We’re creating new rules for typographical tone of voice. Not the kind of rules that are imposed from on high, but the kind of rules that emerge from the collective practice of a couple billion social monkeys—rules that enliven our social interactions.

Like how money is just squiggles on paper or on a screen until it determines whether you can eat lunch, words are just meat twitches until they determine whether you can get a job—or

A videogame called Lost Memories Dot Net by Nina Freeman draws on Freeman’s own adolescent selfies and memories of the 2004 internet: you play as a fourteen-year-old girl designing her new anime fansite-slash-blog and IMing with her best friend about the boy they both have a crush on, in a tabbed interface that resembles an Internet Explorer theme from the era.

I think I need this game

Many people in this group use hyphens or strings of periods or commas to separate one thought from the next (“i just had to beat 2 danish guys at ping poong.....& ..they were good....glad i havent lost my chops” or “thank you all for the birthday wishes - great to hear from so many old friends - hope you all are doing well -- had a lovely dinner”

SHE DEFINED BOOMER POSTING

But it’s important to be cautious about any attempt at Divination By Teenager.

Their entrails are simply not developed enough for proper prognostication.

When it came to anger, the results were mixed: sometimes caps increased the anger rating and sometimes it didn’t, a result which Heath attributed to the difference between “hot” anger (FIGHT ME) and “cold” anger (“fight me”).

im all lowercase fight me all the time.

*bolding asterisks*

this is literaly my favorite text emphasis marker

The Library of Congress archives memes now, preserving things like the Lolcat Bible, Urban Dictionary, and Know Your Meme. It calls them, charmingly and also not entirely inaccurately, “folklore.”