Innovation or not?

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.

Vicious circle of having too much information

“SPAM” appears everywhere! I think many people including me must feel “SPAM” is really annoying. We always receive SPAM emails, telephones and SMS which are about advertisements, surveys and some useless notifications. Like me, I always got more than 1700 unread emails in one of my email boxes.

Most of them are promotional materials, updated news of some products that I am not concern about, notifications of many kinds of websites and I can’t tolerate the emails from unknown persons who asked me to do something like:

Here’s the deal Aggie you have to hop in the drivers seat and take some control everything you need will be taken care of since when is work a stress a relieve I found this review before I signed up http://bit.ou .. you have to you can start it now and you can swiftly be successful there they are running out of open spot fast.

I feel so weird about that kind of junk emails and most important is that I have no idea why they know my name. Every time when I signed in my hotmail account, my friends besides me would probably say that I am so crazy to have so many unread emails and they usually asked me to select them all and then put them into trash. I found that I have got too many undesired emails from various kinds of organizations and I just simply ignore them. Frankly, I have no time to read them, I have no interest to open them, and I don’t even want to spend just a few seconds to delete them. What a pity that the purpose of information technology is supposed to be a convenient way for people to cope with their daily life; however, it has been drastically changed.

Moreover, once I switched on my computer, I would possibly follow several steps: First step: login Facebook, second step: login http://www.cityu.edu.hk/, third step: login email account, search information via Google or other search engines, check the dictionary via Yahoo or Cambridge dictionary, watch movies online, chat with friends via MSN, download useful software, visit the blogs of others, etc. Usually I am likely to browse around 8-10 websites simultaneously. At the very beginning of the power point of lecture 3, there are some questions required us to answer. I am sorry to say that I have 17 YES altogether. I can’t admit I do suffer from information overload. The questions reflect the reality and tell what I think! Due to tons of electronic information provided, I really want to read faster so as to reduce my time and to get as much as I can.

Search engine is one of the helpful tools for me to get information from the Internet. I have tried “Way Back Machine” to take me back to 1999’s interface of http://www.cityu.edu.hk/. Comparing it to the latest one, the 1999’s one was comparatively simple, less informative and less attractive I would say. “Way Back Machine” is a funny search engine that is very different from that I have used. In my point of view, I think it is not only showing us the different styles of interface over the years, but also implying the trend and technology are ever changing in the world.

Digital media colors my life?

When I was in Secondary 1, I started using ICQ to chat with friends and people from all over the world.


When I was in Secondary 3, I first tried video conferences via MSN.


When I was  in Secondary 5, I have been familiarized to text my friends through SMS.


When I was having my Associate Degree, I shared my ideas and expressions with my family and friends via Zanga and Friendster.


When I started working, surfing Facebook became my habit.


A month ago, I started spending so much time with iphone.


I can't believe that I can manage my life smoothly and efficiently without digital media.  However, I've encountered some problems of over-using digital media.


Two months ago, most of my friends have got iphones while I was still using my Nokia. I found that it was problematic for me to communicate with my friends who got an iphone. According to my observation, iphone users like to discuss the pros and cons of various kinds of "apps" and they love to share the experiences of using those "apps" with other iphone users. Definitely, I would be mute, for at least 15 minutes during the gathering. I felt like I was the out-group and I was being left out. And now, I have got an iphone and same thing happens. During lunch or dinner time, some of my friends complained about me that I keep checking messages and emails, surfing Facebook, playing online games etc. via iphone. Unfortunately, I did ignore them.


I realize digital media entertains our life, yet, we should make proper use of it. One of it's functions is to facilitate communication, but not to ruin social relationship between us.

Hello mates

I am so happy to join the course of Language and Digital Media! I would like to share my opinions and happiness in this blog. I am looking forward to meeting my friends here:)