Because Internet: Understanding how language is changing

by Gretchen McCulloch

“Standard” language and “correct” spelling are collective agreements, not eternal truths, and collective agreements can change.

It’s hard to articulate the third-placean appeal of topic-based internet communities for those who’ve never been in one. At least with a pottery class or networking event, you can say you’re there to make a vase or collect some business cards: tangible out-comes even if you’re also searching for intangible community. But for their online versions, the pretexts wear thinner: Why spend so much time talking to strangers about The X-Files or wine tasting when you could be actually watching the show or drinking the wine? The social benefits are invisible to people who don’t need them.

The words “text” and “textile” have a common origin, from a Proto-Indo-European root teks, “to weave.” Writing and weaving are both acts of creation by bringing together.