Hello world. Welcome to the first issue of RITE/ROTE, and seeing as this is all about firsts here's an introduction: R/R is a six-week online journal which focuses on current discussions about online language and internet culture. And by hello world, I actually mean OH HAI ASL LOLOLOLOLOL.
The way we introduce ourselves online is not quite like you would in a real life setting. There are different variables, and thus different compensations for the limitations of each space. In the same way there are differences in the way we might introduce ourselves in a friendly setting compared to a professional one, introducing yourself online has a variation for each space. Except each variation is vastly different from one to the next, whilst still being largely informal.
In other words, you can’t go round asking people “ASL?” all the time, but there is a higher tolerance for being quirky, and sometimes a lower tolerance for being awkward. It is a proven method: the best way to get ousted from any online community is to piss off the veterans by saying something controversial WHILST being some unknown newcomer. (Trolling is a art.)
But, you can hardly blame the veterans for being wary of outsiders. Written personalities are sometimes difficult to interpret. Our gestures, tone, gender, appearance, expressions and dialect all supplement our personality in a way written text cannot.
Take the above video where the majority of the responses are similarly worded or silent, but all the same expressive and varied. There is no real equivalent in online terms without posting an extensive list of actions. And observing something without submitting a response is simply called lurking. Which is what most people do anyway. In some ways, lurking avoids any introductory faux pas altogether.
This is why we compensate by using emoticons, or abbreviations. They aren’t just embellishments, but little emotional insights which help to liven up textual monotony, and therefore help to better define responses. Observe…
I feel, meh :)
I feel, meh :(
Except that emoticons and abbreviations are hardly novel these days. If anything, they tend to become massively viral, whereupon the emotion becomes redundant. Like people who lol when they are clearly not laughing (“I feel terrible :( lol”). The word is so saturated in online speech, that it becomes filler rather than actual representation.
However, this is a limitation that has already been picked up by most internet users, whether through conscious effort or not. Some choose to spell properly amidst chatspeak, or outright refuse to use emoticons. Some dot their writing with obscure references to memes, or punctuate every sentence with a ^^;
For example, I remember a guy who would do a signature action of running into a tree every time he logged onto IRC. Come to think of it, he is the only guy I remember distinctly from my days in that particular channel. By contrast, try logging onto Omegle and keep rolling until someone says something other than “hi. asl?” Unless there’s an Omegle raid on, you’ll be forever searching for that combo breaker.
I suppose there is the opportunity to use video chat on Omegle instead. In the unlikely situation that two conversational partners connect (instead of rolling onto chat, after chat of a wanking, hairy dude), users get stuck between the choice to actually use audio or just type up all exchanges of communication. Usually the recipient gets a fairly good idea of the other person’s typing ability, or is flashed with some occasional signage. (Hearts with your hands, anyone?) And on voice communities like Voxopop, the vocal responses in any one thread are so disjoined that they almost sound musical.
On friends-based social networks — where you’re likely to know who you’re adding — mostly everyone misses that first opportunity to say hello altogether. Instead most opt for, “I don’t understand. How do you use this thing?”, which in itself is a way of introducing yourself as a blundering n00b.
Something as simple as saying “hello” becomes one of the main differences between how we communicate online compared to the offline world. Because the situations that occur online are so unique, they require their own method of introduction. The same thing works in reverse — there is no need to ask someone their name online, because it’s right there in their username. I have accidently blocked so many people on Facebook in my failing to connect their actual names to the screenames I have come to know them by. You mean your name isn’t Commie-BolognaMaster9? And you’re ginger? Blockdeletekkthxbai.
