Netspeak stands for a combination of letters or symbols which can replace a phrase or a complete sentence. I think this is a creative usage of English and it saves the time used for showing meanings in complete sentences. I use Netspeak for the first time in ICQ to chat with my friends. Initially, I was confused by some “new words” used by my chat mates in our communication. For example ttyl, brb, oic, k, omg, etc. I had no idea of the meaning of these “words” and I have to ask for their explanations. I felt anonymous at the beginning as I could not catch the meaning of those “new words”. At that time, I supposed it was a simpler way of communication to use instant messaging. Yet, it was kind of interrupting when I need to ask again and again the meanings of the Netspeak. And I thought that our communication could be more fluent if we use traditional complete sentences throughout our instant messaging. However, it took not so long for me to get used to using Netspeak and I created some “new words” sometimes. For instance, I used combinations like “PEL” to stand for Pretty EyeLashes, “ST” to stand for Sun Tanned, etc. These combinations were used only between my chat mates and me. Thus I thought Netspeak encourages people to be innovative to create their own combination of words.
In the Powerpoint slides, it was mentioned that some researches show secondary teachers prefer their student use their composition-writing rather than computer-writing. Although survey reflects that there was no side effect on standard usage of English by students to hand in their electronic homework through computer, there was a bad effect on me. For instance, the spelling and grammar check function of Microsoft word automatically display the correct or advised use of words which let me neglect my own proofreading when composing my article. Until the written examination I took last semester. I realized that the computer tools for composition cause me less confident in using my own words either in spelling or grammatically when I have to write instead of typing my own passage. Technology may offer convenience in our daily life. However, it also made people lazy and over dependent on its usage.
Yesterday morning, my friend sent me a message via “Whatsapp" by using her smart phone. She said, “Gm!”, and then I wondered why she called me “General Manager” so I asked her the reason why she called me like that, and she told me “Gm” stands for “Good morning”!!! Omg, misunderstanding happened again.
