By Georgia Riessen

Introduction• Online social networking and micro-blogging service • Users send and read text-based tweets• Maximum 140 characters• Over 300 million users• The SMS of the Internet• Twitter shorthand and language• Emoticons and articulation• Differences in language on twitter

Twitter shorthand and language

Examples of shorthand• W/-With• TGIF- Thank God it’s Friday• ROFL- Rolling on the floor laughing• OMG- Oh my God• LOL- Laugh out loud• 2moz- Tomorrow

Emoticons and articulation

• “Congratulations @MoshCam - if I were 70 years younger and differently disposed aesthetically it would be the perfect app for me ;)”

Diagram of emoticons

Stephen Fry and twitter

• “I love words-and while I am fond of the condensed and economical use of them in poetry, in song lyrics, in Twitter, in good journalism and smart advertising, I love the luxuriant profusion and mad scatter of them too.”

• “Enjoyed The Hunger Game. Elements of cheesiness outweighed by suspense, IMHO”

• IMHO- In my humble opinion Stephen Fry with the Twitter bird, both have become symbols of Twitter

Evolution of language

• “ Ay me! For aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth.”

An artistic impression of Titania and Oberon from A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Conclusion

• Scholars argue limit of 140 characters, use of shorthand, and emoticons is destroying our ability to articulate

• Point of twitter is to post a quick comment updating your followers

• Use of emoticons is making language more visual based

• Abbreviations is speeding up how language is used• Contributing to its evolution

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