If I were to compose and complete
Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2025 4:43 am
Topic of conversation: everything that can be incorporated with the term 'social media', because that is so interesting. And especially: how much do we suddenly count. We chatter and tweet away, but forget one of the most visible issues, namely language use. In other words: when you read your timeline full of new messages, do you read spoken language or written language? Do the messages fall into one of these two categories or both? Perhaps into neither? Frankwatching investigates. An analysis from practice.
“Twitter is what we make of it”
Twitter is quite flashy and takes an extremely visible position. A 'geeky' and brazen platform with endless messages. Twitter has created countless new words . At the same time, Twitter is a real-time reporting tool and the platform enables the democratic revolution when it comes to freedom of expression. According to some journalists, it poses the existential threat to the newspaper article. Ultimately, Twitter is just a medium that depends on how its users deal with it. Twitter is what we make of it, I think. We talk more about the performance of Twitter as a tool than about Twitter as a verbal or written form of communication. And that question is precisely interesting.
“Twitter is both written and spoken language”
The New York Times labels Twitter as both 'text' and 'conversation'. Opponents argue that Twitter is primarily 'conversation' and secondarily 'textual'. Most linguists argue that Twitter is both spoken and written language and neither. We are talking about a new, separate category, an online environment in which spoken and written language overlap. On the web, text does not only represent the thoughts of the sender, or writer. A conversation is created between senders and receivers. That conversation consists of text, but reflects the human voice of the parties. A reciprocal game.
Text via Twitter is read in silence, but comes to life through the human voice. Language is no longer a noun, but a verb. We are working on that language. A language that is shaped by the users and is flexible. A new culture and a new form of language use are emerging. We cannot compare that language with existing language. Never before in history have we had to deal with this.
What do Twitter users think?
For the field research we approached different types of respondents, all of whom look at language from their own perspective and are all involved with language.
Jason Falls , social media marketing consultant, blogger and author of the book 'No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide To Social Media Marketing'. @JasonFalls
“Twitter is confined to a written language I'd say. every thought I spoke to 140 characters and included things like hashtags, re-tweets and overheards, people would quickly stop talking to me. Heh!”
Marion Bloem , writer, artist, filmmaker. @MarionBloem
“Initially, I was not at all attracted to tweeting. I thought there was little honor to be kuwait phone number list gained from it for a writer, until an acquaintance tempted me with the words: 'You should tweet like you would write a haiku.' I actually thought that was a nice challenge. Tweeting a haiku is going too far for me, but in my opinion a tweet should have something that makes you glad it is still there.
Every tweeter has developed his own style and perhaps even his own grammar. I don't always like it. I can't stand grammatical errors. I find that my way of tweeting is usually more like that of other writers than of people who don't write for a living. I always feel the need to make something more of it than I would of a quick text message to a friend.
I often just tweet information and I think that's a shame. I would rather just occasionally send a few poetic lines as a tweet into the world, but in practice I send an informative question or request. My followers are probably more interested in quick, concise information; I don't know. I myself like to read nice tweets, whether they are narrative or informative, and even if they are only about the tweeter's personal life, because when he or she is able to put it into words beautifully every time, I am really 'hooked'.
I try to make those sentences a bit more than a hasty text message to provide information. I find that I prefer to read tweets from people who are able to package their information in a nice way. It is quite an art to provide a lot of information in so few words and then even convey an emotion or at least an opinion, and put the commas and periods where they belong. Of course it is a nice way to pass on links, but for me it is neither written nor spoken language. It is twitter language.”
“Twitter is what we make of it”
Twitter is quite flashy and takes an extremely visible position. A 'geeky' and brazen platform with endless messages. Twitter has created countless new words . At the same time, Twitter is a real-time reporting tool and the platform enables the democratic revolution when it comes to freedom of expression. According to some journalists, it poses the existential threat to the newspaper article. Ultimately, Twitter is just a medium that depends on how its users deal with it. Twitter is what we make of it, I think. We talk more about the performance of Twitter as a tool than about Twitter as a verbal or written form of communication. And that question is precisely interesting.
“Twitter is both written and spoken language”
The New York Times labels Twitter as both 'text' and 'conversation'. Opponents argue that Twitter is primarily 'conversation' and secondarily 'textual'. Most linguists argue that Twitter is both spoken and written language and neither. We are talking about a new, separate category, an online environment in which spoken and written language overlap. On the web, text does not only represent the thoughts of the sender, or writer. A conversation is created between senders and receivers. That conversation consists of text, but reflects the human voice of the parties. A reciprocal game.
Text via Twitter is read in silence, but comes to life through the human voice. Language is no longer a noun, but a verb. We are working on that language. A language that is shaped by the users and is flexible. A new culture and a new form of language use are emerging. We cannot compare that language with existing language. Never before in history have we had to deal with this.
What do Twitter users think?
For the field research we approached different types of respondents, all of whom look at language from their own perspective and are all involved with language.
Jason Falls , social media marketing consultant, blogger and author of the book 'No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide To Social Media Marketing'. @JasonFalls
“Twitter is confined to a written language I'd say. every thought I spoke to 140 characters and included things like hashtags, re-tweets and overheards, people would quickly stop talking to me. Heh!”
Marion Bloem , writer, artist, filmmaker. @MarionBloem
“Initially, I was not at all attracted to tweeting. I thought there was little honor to be kuwait phone number list gained from it for a writer, until an acquaintance tempted me with the words: 'You should tweet like you would write a haiku.' I actually thought that was a nice challenge. Tweeting a haiku is going too far for me, but in my opinion a tweet should have something that makes you glad it is still there.
Every tweeter has developed his own style and perhaps even his own grammar. I don't always like it. I can't stand grammatical errors. I find that my way of tweeting is usually more like that of other writers than of people who don't write for a living. I always feel the need to make something more of it than I would of a quick text message to a friend.
I often just tweet information and I think that's a shame. I would rather just occasionally send a few poetic lines as a tweet into the world, but in practice I send an informative question or request. My followers are probably more interested in quick, concise information; I don't know. I myself like to read nice tweets, whether they are narrative or informative, and even if they are only about the tweeter's personal life, because when he or she is able to put it into words beautifully every time, I am really 'hooked'.
I try to make those sentences a bit more than a hasty text message to provide information. I find that I prefer to read tweets from people who are able to package their information in a nice way. It is quite an art to provide a lot of information in so few words and then even convey an emotion or at least an opinion, and put the commas and periods where they belong. Of course it is a nice way to pass on links, but for me it is neither written nor spoken language. It is twitter language.”