Like It Or Not, the Internet Is Changing Our Language

1. “Selfie” is the word of the year, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The OED‘s earliest documented selfie was mentioned in an online forum in 2002.

2002 ABC Online (forum posting) 13 Sept.
“Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped ofer [sic] and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps. I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.”

2. This morning, Megan Garber at The Atlantic notes that linguists have acknowledged a new use for the word “because,” which they are calling “the ‘prepositional-because.’ Or the ‘because-noun.'” (Example: These people are protesting President Obama because racism.) It’s a shorthand way of explaining the cause of something, often used for humorous effect. This is a common formulation on the internet—I’ve used it a few times myself—and, yes, it does feel faddish. But, then, fads help English feel alive.

3. But because I’m human, some internet constructions do drive me batty. “All the feels,” for instance, drives me up a fucking wall. Why not explain the feelings you’re feeling? When you talk about “feels,” you’re sacrificing clarity for the sake of a used-up internet joke. And I think “I CAN’T EVEN.” teetered over into cliche territory a year or so ago. But the thing that drives me batty is when people say “This” as a way of saying “I endorse this message,” sometimes magnified as “So much this.” It’s usually used on social media, where you can already signify your endorsement of the comment by favoriting, or retweeting, or liking, or upvoting. It adds absolutely nothing to a conversation except additional static. When these constructions boost the creativity and clarity of a statement, I appreciate them. When they can be used as a fill-in-the-blank response to a situation, I tend to hate them. But they’re going to keep going, no matter what, because English.