Phenomena o f the Use of Written Language in the Virtual World

Abstract

The development of technology is so fast and tremendous that humans find ways on how to c ommunicate fast, cheap, and practical. Several ways can be done to communicate in writing in the virtual world, for instance by using electronic mail and social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Friendster. Such habits apparently flourished to several layers of society, even though it was started by teenagers and youngsters who always appear progressive and innovative. It is not rare to find abbreviations such as gw (I/me), mo (want), blg (say), thq (thank you), skrg otw (now on the way), ma (with), bkp (Dad), ke rmh y (to the house), se7 (agree). In this research, there are three things that can be classified, such as (1) written communication with mobile phone media (short message), (2) written communication in social media (Facebook), and (3) written communication in chatting such as in MIG 33. Written communication with short messages, can be further classified to be (1) short message that uses abbreviations (2) combination of the use of letters, abbreviations, and numbers. These two classifications are elaborated in the concept of discourse to find the series of complete communication from the beginning until finish. Written communication in short message, social media (Facebook), and in chatting, actually posses similar patterns, which are abbreviating the word, using a variation of numbers and letters, using unnecessary punctuation mark in a series of sentences, writing uppercase and lowercase letters in one sentence.