Page 117 - Cyberculture and New Media

108 The Challenge of Intercultural Electronic Learning
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admitted that he personally hated emoticons, a German student receives the
following response:
... when I read your post and you write that you HATE
emoticons, I do not know if you are saying this with a
twinkle in your eye, or if you are 100% serious about this.
An emoticon [...] could have made this clear.
I can tell other people what I feel/think about a
situation with just one ‘smiley’ and that makes it quite
easy...

This quote suggests that online learners view computer graphics as a
method for punctuating messages. Though some find it “quite amusing when
educated adults communicate via ‘a very happy smiley or shouting smiley’.”
Alongside emoticons and smileys, some other variants of “electronic
English” are extensively used in the given discourse, in particular:

· exclamations (reflect the emotional state of a “speaker”):
Wouldn’t you rather curl up at home with a nice glass of
wine and your warm friendly laptop?!!!!!!
· capitalisation (enables transference of the height of the tone - a large
font, as is known, in the Internet culture is equivalent to shouting):
We are undertaking an educational activity so the
PRODUCT is LEARNING.
· letter addition:
Well, we European will just let you stewed...... for a
bit...looooooooooonger...
OOOOOOOOOOUCH!!!!!! Sorry for the mistake guys. I
plead to your mercy.
· shortenings:
U (“you”), tho (“though”), rite (“right”), CU (“see you”),
f2f (“face-to-face”)
· acronyms:

BTW - By the Way
LOL - Laughing 0ut Loud
IMHO - In my Humble Opinion
· computer slang:
My two pennies worth (a contribution to conversation or
debate)
· occasionalisms:
Xcuse me - excuse me
www - world wide waiting
· dots (adequate to a pause in oral speech - shows the speech tempo):