How_Modern_Technology_Differs_from_Each_Other_and_Changes_the_Way_We_Communicate_and_Why

How Modern Technology Differs From Each Other and Changes the Way We Communicate and Why By Michael Adamson Word Count 4316 Introduction Language is dynamic and changes through different periods of time. In an age of such drastic changes and improvements in technology and the introduction of the internet and mobile phones I have chosen to base my language investigation on technology such as text messaging, emails, and instant messaging services. I will be investigating how they change the way the user interacts with another person compared to face to face communication in terms of language frameworks. I will also be comparing how some of these technological communications differ from each other. Hypothesis In my investigation I expect that all communication through technology as opposed to face to face communication will differ quite dramatically as the people conversing will not be able to see each and will therefore need to compensate for this factor, I believe that this will be one of the main points which will affect how people communicate on such devices as mobile phones. I also think that grammar and discourse including Grice’s maxims will be one of the major things affected as people may want to save time writing out longer words by abbreviating. The different forms of communicating will also differ from each other and I believe this will depend on how the speech input method works, in the case of an email this would be a keyboard. Methodology To make this investigation fair I have collected all of my data from the same people, my sister and her friend, so that the variables can be kept as balanced as possible. I was given permission to use all of the data I collected to make sure that this investigation is ethical as well as fair and I have decided to change the name of the subject and the subject’s friends. Perhaps the most difficult data to obtain was the transcript of normal face to face, I decided to record on my phone the conversation between the people and then later told them and asked their permission to use it in my investigation which they granted. I also collected MSN conversation histories, MySpace messages and text messages by asking my sister to provide some for me. My sister in my investigation in data collection will be called ‘Girl 1’ and the friend she is talking to will be called ‘Girl 2’. Transcript of two people talking In this text there is one main difference that separates this form of communication to the others seen in this investigation and that is that in this piece of data the two people speaking are actually face to face and can see each other. There are certain key points to be made about face to face communication. Discourse Structure The discourse structure in this transcript begins with questions and answers e.g. Girl 1: Where were you today' (.) I was proper bored |in maths | Girl 2: | I know | I was at the dentist and then I missed the bus so my mum said I could stay off ‘cause I would have only made thirty minutes of last lesson anyway (.) Didn’t you get my text' Girl 1: Ohhh (.) nah I left my phone in my room ‘cause I was late out This small excerpt shows how the discourse structure at the beginning of the conversation is, it could be seen that asking questions is a good way at starting a conversation as it gets both people together discussing something which helps the conversations to then lead on and branch out in to different subjects as it does. Talking face to face is also spontaneous speech so the two people conversing cannot really plan out what they are going to say as people using a messenger service can or writing an email. Due to the spontaneity of the situation the speakers can overlap what they are saying and interrupt each other as is shown above. For the most part though the conversation in this transcript flows quite well and the structure carries on as Girl 1 talking then Girl 2 and so on which is known as turn taking and is one of Grice’s maxims of manners to keep the conversation running smoothly and to try and avoid ambiguity. This is also shown in the following excerpt. (Girl 2): We break up at 12 and we just play games and |watch videos| but my mum won’t let me stop off Girl 1: | Yeah I know | Girl 1 interrupts to start talking but Girl 2 keeps talking so that she finishes her sentence so Girl 1 stops talking to let her conclude. However it could be seen that Girl 1 is not actually trying to interrupt but is actually inviting Girl 2 to keep talking by showing encouragement and agreement to Girl 2. Visuals As the two people talking can see each other then there is less ambiguity than if they were talking in text message or other forms of technological communication. For example: (Girl 1): you big skiver! Don’t even talk to me Girl 2: [Laughs] no it wasn’t even like that As the two people talking could see each other then they could tell by the reactions of their facial expressions and prosodic features if they were being serious or not. In this case it is clear to see that Girl 2 could see that Girl 1 was not serious in her accusation so she replies with a laugh followed by a justification of why she was off just to make sure she cleared the air of any ambiguity. Another example of this is: (Girl 2):I bet Rachel will try to pull off the moves as always [laughs] she’s crap [Girl 1 does a silly gesture] Girl 2: [laughs] that’s actually what she looks like when she does it though! The two speakers in this transcript have related to something humorous visually through a gesture which could seem exclusive to them and their group of friends. It would be hard to portray doing this through an email for example as it would most likely lose much of its humour which was the whole point of doing the gesture in the first place. Pragmatics and Sociolect The pragmatics and semantics of a conversation can often lead to confusion if the two people conversing do not both know each other well. In this case though they both know each other quite well and seem to understand each other without any problems. For example: Girl 1: Ohhh (.) nah I left my phone in my room ‘cause I was late out Girl 1 does not elaborate on what she was late out for but girl 2 understands the pragmatics and context of the conversation and understands that she meant late out for school. An example of sociolect would be: Girl 1: ‘cause Benton’s gonna believe |that isn’t he| Girl 1 and Girl 2 must both have short hand name for their teachers or at least this teacher as Girl 2 understands who Girl 1 is talking about. This could be reflective of their social group or just teenagers in general and links with pragmatics as Girl 2 looks at the surrounding context to understand who Girl 1 is talking about. Summary Due to the two speakers being face to face they do not misunderstand each other as they can read facial expressions and the tone in which they say things which helps them conclude properly the pragmatics of the conversation and help keep the conversation flowing without the need to clarify anything. This will most likely not be the case when using technology to communicate and so modern technology will need to compensate for non-verbal communication. The discourse as I have said earlier, flows rather well apart from a few interruptions which does not follow Grice’s maxims for politeness, however I believe that the two people are comfortable enough with each other not to be bothered by being interrupted and also given the context of the conversation as it is not very serious. Technology Communication General I have analysed all my data and have found that to save myself repeating things throughout this investigation report I shall now list all the various changes from oral speech that communicating through technology have in common. I will then later analyze each text for each different forms of communication individually and single out their different points. Here are the main points the non oral communications use. I have taken an extract from an MSN conversation and MySpace E-mail message as they have all the points I wish to observe about what all the similarities of communicating through technology in two short clips. Text 1 MSN Conversation Girl 2 says: orrr wat a blag jst walk round u only live round the corner! :P so get your lazy ars round now coz we hav work to do little miss! (ha lyk miss spencley sed lmao) Text 2 MySpace Message From: Girl 1 Date: 24 Oct 2007, 12:47 haha! We can both be fat bifters and nt get married coz well be massiv and no man wud want us lol then well live 2gether in a house full of cats that have fish legs coz am a crazy scientist :P lmao *evil eye* xx Grammar Initialism and acronyms – This helps shorten down a word so that it is easier to type and more efficient, a lot of words and phrases have became quite well known as they are convenient. An example of this would be ‘lmao’ which stands for ‘laughing my ass off’ and ‘lol’ which is for ‘laugh out loud’ These have been used by both Girl 1 and Girl 2 and also help them tell each other when they find something funny as they cannot see each other so a description is needed. This is shown in both Texts. Phonetic Spelling- Spelling words as they are said, for example ‘what’ would become ‘wat’ and ‘your’ would become ‘ur’ these are used quite frequently. It can be a way of shortening words or simply an easier way of spelling. This is shown in both Texts. Homophones- Girl 1 is a frequent user of homophones and they are also another way of just shortening down a word. This can though sometimes cause pragmatic and semantic problems when talking for example ‘u got 2'’ this is a bit ambiguous as it could mean ‘have you got to'’ or it could mean ‘have you got two'’This is shown in Text 1. Symbols- These are used as another way of shortening sentences and have been incorporated into communication through technology. An example would be an ‘x’ which symbolises a kiss, or an @ which means ‘at’. They are also used to help the user ‘act out’ something as they cannot act it out visually, an example can be seen in Text 2. Emoticons - These are used to compensate for not being able to see each other and can portray a mood or can be used for assurance that someone is joking or not speaking harshly, an example of this is ‘:P’ which is a silly tongue out face and is often used to show the other person that they are not being serious or harsh. This is shown in both Texts. A wink would for another example could be used when someone is being flirty and an angry face used when someone is angry. Emoticons help take the place of non-verbal communication that a person would have with face to face interaction. Vowel Deletion- This is quite common as it is just another way of shortening a message. By removing the vowel of a word it is still quite easy to decipher what word as is shown in both texts above. However a problem may occur once again with ambiguity. Another thing that is quite common is pairing together of vowel deletion with other grammatical uses. For example homophones and vowel deletion in ‘2gether’ which is ‘together’; also used is phonetic spelling with ‘ars’ which means ‘arse’. Both examples can be seen in Text 1 and other examples in Text 2. MSN Conversation (Instant Messaging Service) MSN Messenger is a real time messaging service that allows two or more people to talk to each other without the time delay or cost that emails and text messages have so it is a very popular internet service. Although Instant Messaging (IM) is in real time it is still considered to be non-spontaneous as the writer has time to think about what they are going to say as they don’t feel obligated or under pressure to reply as they cannot be seen and therefore can ‘pretend’ to be ‘away’ from the computer. Also it is normal that when talking to someone on IM that they don’t reply for a few minutes sometimes as people understand they may be busy looking at a website etc. The graphology used in IM is as pictured to the right. This is a typical MSN box and the layout is as seen, a box to write in and another box to read text. These are the main two boxes. Other small buttons are there to help the users for example one to change text font and another to look for emoticons to be used. Features are included to compensate for not being able to see each other, for example having a ‘what I’m listening to’ which shows what the person is listening to, and a ‘personal message’ section after their names. Both of these help define what mood a person is in as they cannot see their facial expressions to be able to know this. Here is an extract of Girl 1’s Message history: Girl 1 says: (lmao! She’s a funny one that teacher) have you seen the whether! its bloody freezin! and my will get soaked :P so a’l just wait 4 a lift coz i cba getting all soked and mingin just so i can go nd c u :p haha jokes! (K) I believe that one of the main features that affects the way we communicate is through the input method and how fast the user wishes to give the message to the other user. I have found that using MSN Girl 1 and Girl 2 can communicate faster and easier to each other so that although they do use abbreviated words and vowel deletion etc they still type quite a few words correctly as the input method of a keyboard is not nearly as restricting as that of a mobile phones because a keyboard is much easier and faster to navigate and use than the small button pad of a mobile phone. Another thing to take note of is that the use of such devices as abbreviations, homophones phonetic spelling etc are quite inconsistent which I believe is an indication of how fast a person wants to get their point across just like with face to face, if people were in an argument then they would talk faster. I think this is because again the input method of a keyboard is not too restricting and also that the conversation is in real time which may make the user (Girl 1) want to reply as she would in face to face conversation. There can also be a problem with pragmatics and semantics regarding MSN other than the ones listed in the technology general section. As the two people cannot see each other or know what tone of voice or facial expression they are showing then things can be said or done such as using ‘:@’ (an angry face) when not being serious which could lead to the other person thinking they are serious. Girl 1 realises this so she has to verify to Girl 2 that she is joking when she says something, this can be seen in the text above highlighted in red. The discourse structure of this conversation largely follows a turn taking suit however this does change as Girl 1 speaks twice without input from Girl 2 as shown below: Girl 1 says: al need to get ma stuff sortd then now Girl 1 says: Kkz so then al finish doin ma hair and have ma tea and al c u in an hour! Laterzzzzzzzzzzzzz xxxxxxxxx Usually a person does not interrupt another person on MSN by mistake as there is a little icon which tells the other person that the other user is typing, however people can still interrupt or in this case of Girl 1, not give the other person chance to speak which according to Grice’s maxims is bad mannered. MySpace Message (E-mail) There is not too much difference between an email and MSN although the most dramatic difference is that the communication is not in real time and therefore Girl 1 will have more time to think about what she is going to write and that it is also non-spontaneous. However it could be said that when writing replies to emails the writer does not think too much about what she is typing back anymore than she would if she were in a room talking face to face with them; so in this sense it could be seen as spontaneous but I believe that Girl 1 has had time to think about her response and can therefore choose how she is to reply to it. The graphology of the layout is not as complicated as that of MSN as all the previous messages are displayed from the email are in the same text box and the user writes in the same box (body of the message) then presses send. The other box is the subject which remains the same unless changed by one of the users. Above the subject box is the display name and picture of the person who you are emailing. This can help with not getting mixed up with who you are talking to as opposed to MSN where you could accidently send someone a message by not taking a note of their name. The discourse structures of these emails are straightforward as they go in a specific turn taking order with it being impossible to interrupt someone by mistake as the person would have to read and reply to the same message. They consist of a simple one person speaking and one person replying. A thing I have noticed about emails are that the grammar used in them is much like that of MSN but perhaps slightly better as I think that the writer has time to think of what they are going to write. This is shown in the text below. From: Girl 1 Date: 24 Oct 2007, 12:53 hmm how about u have a cat gun that launches cats thru a canon lyk the crazy cat woman on da Simpsons! Hahahaha i’m gonna go eat now :) xxxxxxx Something to be noted as well is also the use of symbols and how they have became incorporated into the use of such things as emails. For example the use of ‘x’ as a polite gesture that tends to be put on the end of all messages as it is seen as the norm This is also shown in the text above highlighted in red. This links with the consistent politeness of people through technology, in all the texts I have collected they have been a lot more polite than of that of the transcript of Girl 1 and Girl 2 talking. I believe this is to clarify the intentions of their speech as communicating through technology without being able to see the person they are speaking to as the listener, or rather reader may take something the wrong way and therefore be offended. As with MSN Girl 1 still uses such devices as phonetic spelling and vowel deletion etc but on the whole compared to texting a lot of words are spelt quite correctly and the grammar stays more or less intact. Again I think that this is down to the input method of the keyboard and the fact that Girl 1 had as much time as she wanted to write a reply rather than writing a reply straight away to Girl 2 on MSN. So the time delay between emails and instant messaging could be directly related with how correct the grammar is. Text Messaging Text messaging is exactly what its name is, a mobile phone sending message of text to another mobile phone. It is very popular as the person sending does not need to be at a computer to send a message which means they can be sent on the go wherever they are. Out of the three different types of technological communication I have analysed text messaging seems to be the one that has the most dramatic changes in its text as shown below. Text 1: hiii wat tym r u cumin roun mine' Duno if a shud strt ma homework or nt! Tb x The most notable feature about this text is that it is covered with grammatical devices such as vowel deletion, phonetic spelling, homophones and symbols etc. I think the grammar has changed so much in this form of communication because of a theme I have been saying for most of this investigation and that is the input method. With a mobile phone the input method is extremely restricted compared to a keyboard or face to face so that the Girl 1 is limited to how she can send a message to someone. Also mobile phones charge money to send a text message and they only have a set amount of characters a person can enter per text before it has to become two text messages which costs more money. So Girl 1 and most other mobile phone users try to shorten words down significantly to fit as much into the message so that they do not end up having to send two text messages. This explains why the grammar is affected how it is. The discourse of this type of communication is again quite simple, Girl 1 texts someone who then replies and she reply to them. However some problems may occur while using text messaging such as typos which are a lot more common in text messages than MSN and emails because of the awkward input method and the speed in which most people text. Again people are much more polite through this method than talking in person to make sure of no ambiguity or wrong perceptions by the person they are messaging. As I do not have messages from a Girl 2 then I cannot be completely certain of this however I believe that she would follow suit of the incorporated collocations ‘x’ and ‘tb’ (text back) which adds to the overall polite formality of the messages. This is shown in the text above highlighted in red. The graphology shown on screen of a mobile phone differs depending on which phone a person is using but it generally has a message which for example Girl 1 would read, and then press a button to reply where she will then have a new screen with a blank box on it and different navigational buttons to help change upper or lower case, input method (e.g predictive text) and a symbols button to add things such as smiley faces or even pictures and videos. Conclusion In conclusion I think that I have proved my hypothesis fairly correct. The communication through technology did change dramatically compared to face to face communication as the other methods had to compensate for the lack of visual expression from the other people. Also grammar and discourse were the two main frameworks affected as Girl 1 changed the way she communicated considerably whilst communicating through the different technologies as opposed to talking face to face where only minor bits of grammar were affected and that was most likely down to regional dialect, and sociolect. The discourse changed for the different types of technology as it depended much on the nature of the conversation, such as real time for MSN and time delayed for E-mails and Text Messages. Also the input method changed how people communicate, if the input is restricting then there will be more abbreviations etc but if the input is less restricted (keyboard) then people will shorten words less and stick more to the grammatical rules. Finally to conclude I have found that there is a correlation between the input method and the message delay (time it takes to reach the other person) as well as how technology needs to compensate for not being able to see the person you are communicating with. Emoticons and symbols are the main gap fillers for non-verbal communication with the user also being overly polite to make sure of no ambiguity to the person they are talking to, however there is still room for error but the majority of younger people still prefer to communicate through modern technology than speaking over the telephone. Evaluation I believe that my investigation went quite well and that all the information that I collected and analysed fit together and make sense when compared with each other. I think that given the ethical issues involved with this investigation that I approached them well and was given permission by everyone involved given that all names and numbers/email addresses were kept hidden or removed. I also believe that my investigation was kept very fair as I used the same person’s information for all of the different types of communications which kept control of the variables. If I could do one thing different it would probably be that I could have retrieved the Text Messages from Girl 2 as then I could have decided fully on the ‘politeness principal’ I was investigating. Appendices Conversation Transcript Girl 1: Where were you today (.) I was proper bored |in maths | Girl 2: | I know | I was at the dentist and then I missed the bus so my mum said I could stay off ‘cause I would have only made thirty minutes of last lesson anyway (.) Didn’t you get my text' Girl 1: Ohhh (.) nah I left my phone in my room ‘cause I was late out (.) you big skiver! don’t even talk to me Girl 2: [Laughs] no it wasn’t even like that (.) my dad was at work and it was the last bus to school Girl 1: ‘cause Benton’s gonna believe |that isn’t he| Girl 2: | I’ll just bring| a note in from my mum then telling him though (2.0) I can’t even be bothered with school on Friday there’s no point even going in (.) We break up at 12 and we just play games and |watch videos| but my mum won’t let me stop off Girl 1: | Yeah I know | Girl 1: Yeah same (.) I wanted to try and stop off too but they never let me they never realise that all we do is crap on the last day Girl 2: [Laughs] They think we’re working away at a cure for cancer or something while we’re actually just sat there watching ‘Bring it on’ Girl 1: Urgh I can’t be bothered watching that again (.) Lucy always brings it in and no one likes it! Girl 2: [Laughs] I know it’s so boring why do we care if some cheerleaders win a competition or not buzz on for them (2.0) and I bet Rachel will try to pull off the moves as always [laughs] she’s crap [Girl 1 does a silly gesture] Girl 2: [laughs] that’s actually what she looks like when she does it though! Girl 1: [laughs] I know! Eee bless her at least we’ll have fun though (.) I’d still prefer a sleep in though [laughs] MSN Conversation Girl 2 says: Wat time u coming round'' :) Girl 1 says: a need to wait until my dad gets in and see if he can give me a lift :/ Girl 2 says: orrr wat a blag jst walk round u only live round the corner! :P so get your lazy ars round now coz we hav work to do little miss! (ha like miss spencley sed lmao) Girl 1 says: (lmao! She’s a funny one that teacher) have you seen the whether! its bloody freezin! and my will get soaked :P so a’l just wait 4 a lift coz i cba getting all soked and mingin just so i can go nd c u :p haha jokes! (K) Girl 2 says: ha charmin! well what time are u gonna b round' Coz i relly wanna get started on dis homework coz if u don’t come round then i probs wont even do it! :p u know what am like lol Girl 1 says: K well al get my tea put on soon so al wolf that down finish getin redy then al see you in about an hour is that ok for you miss control ma life'''!!! Ha Girl 2 says: Well if u give me ur house as well then well be sorted but if you cant do that then just get round here in an hour and weel get 2 work! Girl 1 says: al need to get ma stuff sortd then now Girl 1 says: Kkz so then al finish doin ma hair and have ma tea and al c u in an hour! Laterzzzzzzzzzzzzz xxxxxxxxx Girl 2 says: A b c’in u l8er! Hahahaha xxxxxx MySpace Message (E-mail) Note these messages start from the bottom and work upwards which is the layout of MySpace. ----------------- Original Message ----------------- From: Girl 2 Date: 24 Oct 2007, 12:57 lol! Yer that cause a love animal cruelty 8-) lmao okay c u later! xxxxxxxx ----------------- Original Message ----------------- From: Girl 1 Date: 24 Oct 2007, 12:53 hmm how about u have a cat gun dat launches cats thru a canon lyk the crazy cat woman on da Simpsons! Hahahaha im gonna go eat now :) xxxxxxx ----------------- Original Message ----------------- From: Girl 2 Date: 24 Oct 2007, 12:50 lmao! So ull be a fat crazy scientist and al just be fat' I want a special I.D too! :( xx ----------------- Original Message ----------------- From: Girl 1 Date: 24 Oct 2007, 12:47 haha! We can both be fat bifters and nt get married coz well be massiv and no man wud want us then well live 2gether in a house full of cats that have fish legs coz am a crazy scientist :p *evil eye* xx ----------------- Original Message ----------------- From: Girl 2 Date: 24 Oct 2007, 12:45 nah not much planned for me lyk either, mite go out to ma mates too nd just cabbage all gettin fat as well! Haha xx ----------------- Original Message ----------------- From: Girl 1 Date: 24 Oct 2007, 12:42 ha i know am actually just amazing arnt i (h) erm not much pland relly just gona go out to beccas and watch a few dvds and eat and get fat :p haha u' Xx ----------------- Original Message ----------------- From: Girl 2 Date: 24 Oct 2007, 12:28 ha seen u 2day wiv all ur jokes finkin ur some peter kay! Hahaha u had me actually rofl-ing! u got much planned for the weekend then bbz' :) xxx Text Messages Text 1: hiii wat tym r u cumin roun mine' Duno if a shud strt ma homework or nt! Tb x Text 2: ye a was gna do dat science 1 bt if ur comin round den al strt it l8er coz a wnt finish it if u cum lol :P tb x Text 3: so cum round for bout 6' Den we cn decid wat were gna do frm der coz i cba rackin my brains ryt now! Ha tb x Text 3: lmao! Yer jst do dat den nd al see u wen a see u bt dnt b too long or therll b no food left! Tb x Text 4: orrr yerrr coz a can eat all dat carna! ryt am off 2 gt strted den! smell ya l8er!