I remember reading Taming of the Shrew in grade school and thinking ‘this is English?’ Nope. I was wrong. It’s Elizabethan. It’s what our language has evolved from.
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more have been playing active roles in the evolution of language. With the development of online tools, we’ve been able to enhance communications between countries, cultures and languages. While students may not have a grip on how we’ve talked and written in the past, they have developed their own language that fits with the tools that they are surrounded with. Isn’t that more resourcefulness than anything?
When you are able to embrace a platform, it’s important to also think about the language, tone and goal of it as well. That’s what people are doing now. Text isn’t dying, the way we think about it is shifting drastically.
For example, while a 140 character Twitter message may seem too brief, it might be a great way to learn brevity and concise writing skills. Learning to get your messages and plans across with a few characters is possible, but it takes time and practice. It’s a new art.
Facebook is now allowing text and articles of all kinds to be shared, liked, and previewed. I can put in a link on some-one’s wall and get the title, a summary, and put in a comment, but there is a maximum limit of characters I can use. There are now boundaries on the way we communicate through text. As a result, we are learning to adapt and shorten our communications.
When you are thinking about various online platforms to be part of, consider the language boundaries involved. You have limited space and time. While Facebook will have your information in people’s newsfeeds, a post on Twitter might be ‘washed away’ in a matter of seconds. There are times that a Facebook update and post might not be perfect for the Twitter audience and visa versa.
They goal is to keep in mind that not all platforms are alike. An email gives you space to go into more depth, but social media platforms give you an opportunity to give people a glimpse and engage them in conversation.
Think about your elevator pitch. If you are talking six or ten minutes later, no one will be listening. Does that mean that they have a short attention span? Maybe. But it could also mean that they aren’t interested enough to hear a lecture. They want to talk, discuss and interact with you.Having longer blog posts and in-depth readings are great options for later. That’s when you can lecture and present. Right now, social media is just reinforcing what we’ve already been doing in daily life… talking, conversing and reaching in more when we are ready.
Text isn’t changing, we are.
What are you doing to start engaging people on various platforms? Have you noticed any differences in communication methods across the various tools like Twitter and Facebook?
Kristina is based in the Twin Cities and eats and breathes social media. Her love for technology’s influence on culture can be found here.
Great post, Kristina! Right away I remembered what my boss told me during my first internship. In college, we’re taught to draw out our words as much as possible. How else are you going to reach the 30 pages required in the assignment? You reach 30 pages by adding detail, usually in the form of fluffy adjectives that no one really pays attention to. In PR especially, we need to learn to cut down the text and only include relevant information that’s easy to read but hard to forget.
It’s a huge change to go from college to the real world, where instead of writing for space you’re writing for content. It’s increasingly difficult now because when we used to get an entire page for a press release we’re now cutting down to a two paragraph pitch email or even a 140 character DM!
Of course, this leads to the question, do we need to have our colleges prepping their students for this new shorter-is-better writing style?
You brought up a perfect example. I think it’s also important to realize that it can be a generational gap as well. I’ve worked with seasoned CEOs and they were left perplexed when people weren’t reading a memo that they spent an hour writing.
I think that students need to be able to write a research paper, and also know how to write for media. It’s totally different, especially now. I really do think that students need to be prepared to write for the tools today.
I don’t think its a question of dying or evolving! But the presentation has changed a lot! As most people are confined with hectic schedule the way of presenting text definitely needs to be altered in such a way that can attract them! what say?
Good point Allen. The presentation has changed,but when that happens sometimes the way we use text changes as well. Numbers and letters can take on different meanings.
So you are saying with a hectic schedules, the text has to adjust to make the content more attractive in order to get my attention?