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Abstract The effects of new technology on language was investigated. It was found that all technology has an effect on language, both positive and negative. Every field of technology that was investigated showed some effect on the way that language is used in and around it. The more that people got used to the technology, the more language was effected. The internet has weakened our ability to communicate with each other face to face. Cell phone use etiquette should be a priority to cell users. It is shown that society is becoming rude. The medical field has grown significantly, adding many new terms to language. Medical organizations have come up with ways of dealing with all this new technology. Effects of Technology on Language Technology has influenced our language in a myriad of ways. The introduction of communication satellites has ushered in a new era of near instant communication around the globe. We now have the internet with its online chat forums, private chat, and Email. Satellites have also facilitated cellular or wireless communication via devices such as cellular telephones, pagers, or personal digital assistants. The various elements of this technology have had both positive and negative effects on our language and the way we communicate. In the following text our group will briefly examine each of these elements and identify their impact on our language. The “Galactic Network” concept originally conceived by J. C. R. Licklider of MIT in 1962, laid the foundation for what we now know as the internet. The internet has existed in various forms since 1965 when a TX-2 computer located at MIT was connected via a low speed dial up connection to a Q-32 computer in California. The internet has evolved from a system limited to use by researchers only, into a world wide domain accessible by virtually anyone with the required linking device. Licklider’s vision of the internet has impacted 20th. Century communication and access to the written word much like Guttenberg’s invention of the printing press impacted people of the 15th. Century. The internet has ushered in the age of Email and online chat. Now, rather than writing a letter to a friend or family member, we can create a single document and send it to any number of friends and family members at once. In addition, we have the ability to attach photos or other data. Unfortunately, since “a picture is worth a thousand words”, we no longer make the effort to describe what we can simply attach. As a result, our use of expressive, descriptive language is becoming more and more limited. This technology has also seen the rise of electronic slang or shorthand, particularly among participants in online chat. A visit to an online chat room will reveal terms such as btw (by the way), damhik (don’t ask me how I know), eod (end of discussion), hhok (ha ha only kidding), and plos (parents looking over shoulder). Considering that all the communication is input via keyboard, terms such as these are certain time savers. Especially for the digitally challenged among us. However, there is cause for concern as well. How long will it be before we see these terms accepted in regular communication? Recently, we have witnessed the acceptance of “nine eleven” as reference to the attack on the World Trade Center. In contrast, we do not refer to the attack on Pearl Harbor as “twelve seven”. Cryptic terms are becoming more and more accepted. A simple search for internet abbreviations for pen pals will yield a listing of one hundred eighty four examples of such terms. Another more troubling aspect of these abbreviations is the ability of the user to prevent others such as parents or guardians from understanding what is being sent and received. To the uninitiated, it may as well be a foreign language. Similar shorthand is employed by users of mobile messaging, a feature of many cellular telephones. In this instance, such shorthand seems appropriate given the limited method of input. Using a numeric keypad to type out a message may appear fun or cool in television ads, but the reality is far different for most users as it is actually cumbersome and time consuming. Advancements in computing technology have resulted in personal computers becoming economical and available to users worldwide. To date, in excess of one billion personal computers have been sold since Intel’s introduction of the microprocessor in 1971. According to an Intel press release dated July 1, 2002: Today PCs are in roughly 60 percent of U.S. households, followed by 49 percent in Western Europe and 38 percent in Asia Pacific. At the end of last year, nearly half a billion people around the world had access to the internet from their homes. The computer age has spawned a wealth of new words and terms in addition to new meanings for existing words. Many are in the form of acronyms such as BIOS (Basic Input/Output system), others bring new meaning to old terms such as cold boot. Most people living in a cold climate can relate to a cold boot as what one feels while getting dressed in winter. However, thanks to the computer age, we now think of a cold boot as starting our computer after it has been shut down for some time. The lexicon of computer related words and terms make most novice or casual computer users feel as though they have entered a foreign country upon entering a computer store. The ever helpful staff is most willing to impress you with their knowledge by bombarding you with product information such as “this one has a 2.75 Gig processor, 512 megs of Ram, and a 100 Gig hard drive”. For many this only makes them feel even less a part of today’s computer age. However, there is hope. A web site (no not a spider’s hangout, but an electronic catalog of sorts located on the internet) called Bella Online offers an informative dictionary of common computer terms. Expressed in layman’s terms, this offering is most helpful in understanding the geek speak of the computer sales staff. This is a must read for any but the most computer literate, prior to purchasing a computer.
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