Txt Spk…It’s Gr8!
Over the past couple of years or so, our language has changed.
In the past, it was considered bad manners to write using abbreviations, and people who shortened language to get a point across were considered lazy or slapdash.
And then, something changed…
When the textual revolution came about, we all started to reap the benefits of communicating quickly, and the pitfalls of predictive texting started to change the way we contacted each other, forever.
This linguistic revolution has changed everything. You only have to look at web sites such as urban Dictionary to see that our language is changing, and we need to adapt in order to stay ahead of the modernization of our communications.
The Urban Dictionary – Changing The Way We Write
This site has been set up as an alternative to the traditional dictionaries available online. All you have to do is log in, and you can set definitions for new words. Notable examples include:
- ‘Lol’ – to laugh out loud (taken from the abbreviation on texts and Facebook)
- ‘Buy-Curious’ – someone who wanders around shops without actually purchasing anything, to kill time
- ‘Protohype’ – the process of leaking a prototype device to generate buzz about a product you don’t quite yet have ready for market, to a friendly tech website who will promote the gizmo well before it’s ready to go.
Unless you’ve been buried under a rock for the past few months, it’s impossible to miss the way this language is penetrating our conversations.
So, what does this mean for us, as Blog writers?
How do we adopt this new language trend in our writing?
The truth is, as a regular blogger, not much has changed.
We now have more power to communicate emotions, by using smilies or phrases such as ‘Lol’, but spattering your blog with this kind of language doesn’t really put across the right impression, depending on who you are writing for.
Just as our daily newspapers haven’t really adopted the new craze for shortening language, so we don’t have to feel obliged to resort to abbreviations and slang to get our point across on our blogs.
Sometimes, it can be handy to shorten things for our readers, but overall, it seems that our blogs have not been early adopters of the new language trend.
Will this change in the future?
Different blogs have different purposes.
If you are writing about a timber company, using slang isn’t going to endear you to your potential customers. Similarly, a Showbiz blog detailing the intricacies of our favorite celebrities isn’t going to read well if it is written in stuffy language.
The trick is matching your writing style to your audience.
How do we know what ‘voice’ to choose when we write?
Essentially, you know your audience best.
Whatever industry you are in, the likelihood is you are an expert in your field, and so you naturally revert to the best writing style for your own blog. If you try and adapt and change to suit potential new readers, the chances are you will end up coming across as fake, and turn your readers off.
The bottom line is, I think you need to be yourself.
This is one of the best qualities a blog writer can have – to be true to yourself, and your industry, and use your in-built knowledge of your readers and what they are looking for, to write your blog in the best possible way.
WKD! 🙂
What’s your view? How has your language / blog writing changed? Please share your views in the comments below.
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