Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language

by Gretchen McCulloch

In a world where, to use the expression of technologist Jenny Sundén, you’re writing yourself into existence, how you write is who you are.

Glitchy, pixelated, and badly photoshopped internet art came back into popularity in an age of high-definition cameras and smooth Instagram filters, and so did the written equivalent: stylized verbal incoherence mirroring emotional incoherence.

In that moment, this thread was the fulfillment of a dream belonging to centuries of writers, from Rousseau to The Onion: a successful communication of irony in writing between two complete strangers.

After all, a red pen will never love me back.

In fact, language’s only known predator is other people: many languages have been stamped out or imposed on others through war or conquest.