The internet's impact on everyday speech

Emoticons

The introduction of emotion icons, or emoticons, on the internet is commonly attributed to Scott Fahlman and his "smileys" :-), and :-(. Since the emergence of the web, emoticons have proliferated. I was a big fan of ^-^ as a kid.

In recent times, people, usually Gen Z or later, sometimes pronounce emoticons in verbal speech, with the meaning being that of the visual picture of the emoticon. OWO becomes "oh-woah", UWU becomes "oo-woo", and XD becomes "ex-dee". These are sometimes used as reactions or interjections, or to relay a specific emotion.

Because emojis are entirely pictorial and not made of text characters, they cannot be verbalised in this way, so the longevity of this speech quirk amongst post-emoji-introduction generations is unknown.

Images, .gifs, and memes

The first image uploaded to the web is credited to Tim Burners-Lee and is a static picture of parody do-wop group Les Horribles Cernettes. Since then, images have become arguably the main content of the internet, with many social media platforms (Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, BeReal) being almost entirely image-based.

In this image-centric world, sometimes people, in conversation, in order to express a specific emotion, or for humorous effect, will liken it to a well known internet image. For example, "I walked into class late today and nobody was there, and I was like, surprised Pikachu face."

Text Abbreviations

Abbreviations existed long before the internet, at least back to pay-by-character telegraph times, with the goal of shortening proper names or common phrases. For web users, this may be done to fit within a character limit, or simply to hasten typing speeds.

This has bled into life off the web, as Millenials and Gen Z, or at least the ones I hang out with, often pronounce the more common abbreviations out loud in verbal conversations. Some are pronounced as words, such as LMAO becoming "le mao", LOL becoming like "lull", and POG becoming "pog" or sometimes "poggies", in the way that NASA becomes "nahsuh". Others are sounded out letter by letter, such as "BRB", "WTF", and "JK".

Is this bad?

I don't think so. Slang and cultural references have existed forever, and formal and academic language doesn't seem to have been affected by any of these phenomena. Let the kids have fun. ^-^