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There is no doubt that it has consolidated itself among certain groups and especially in some generations, in such a way that it would be strange to see a conversation between centennials or Z’s on WhatsApp or in a Discord room and not be the basis of communication between them.
We are talking about Internetese.
After all, what is Internetese? How, when and why did it come about? Can it or can it not be used in other contexts, as in the case of companies?
Understanding and discussing this type of question is the subject of this chat.
What is Internetese?
When we researched the subject, we found a wide variety of definitions, such as the one that classifies Internetese as a set of shorthand, phonetic and visual language codes, which aims to facilitate and speed up written communication.
It is not difficult to understand this explanation when we focus particularly on shorthand, phonetic and visual words:
- Shorthand is the use of methods for abbreviation or use of writing symbols, in order to be faster or brief compared to the standard way of writing words. Among the many practical examples, using you instead of you or today instead of todaytakes half the typing time compared to the “correct” format;
- It is phonetic because for some situations it makes use of representations of the sounds produced in speech, as in the case of no in place of no. Although, unlike shorthand and therefore with the inclusion and not removal of characters, it is intended to sound like we speak and in terms of typing it is more dynamic than using the tilde, or in examples of using accentuation (eg jah/já , eh/é, etc);
- The visual component is characterized by emoticons and emojis, which replace a whole word and in some cases, even more than one or even a momentary condition of the person using it, such as joy, happiness or smiles, symbolized by
or 
;
However, there are those who study the phenomenon and consider Internetese in a broader way, since there is a series of slang and neologisms, which is when a new word is created or an existing one gains a new meaning, which are the cases of “departed ”, “lacração” or “got rancid”.
Foreign expressions can also be included, which is increasingly common and which in the list of examples contains words like “stalkear”, “shippar”, “trollar”, “flopar” or “hype”.
And it doesn’t stop there. In the case of Brazil, we always manage to adapt this new vocabulary, even transforming foreign nouns and creating new verbs from them. Now someone can “fanficar” (fanfic = fictional narrative written and disseminated by fans), “hitar” (hit = song that became very popular) or even “bugar” (bug = failure in software or hardware).
In other words, Internetese is the language that is normally used in the most diverse situations on the Internet, such as on social networks, but which often also goes beyond this context and gains space in face-to-face communication and in different social circles, including even professionals. .
When and why did Internetese appear?
There are those who say that internetese came up with SMS. That’s because typing anything on the first cell phones was laborious and time consuming. Those who lived at the time know. Therefore, the first three characteristics (shorthand, phonetic and visual) made the task much easier.
And there was yet another factor, the limitation of possible characters in the messages.
But Internetese actually predates SMS.
It was born before the popularization of cell phones and the Internet itself in commercial terms.
Even in the early days of the world wide web, when it was not even called the Internet and was only accessible by rare universities around the world and a few in Brazil (USP, Unicamp, PUC, a few federal universities, etc.) some features and protocols (bulletin boardMUT, telnetetc), communication between two or more users, already contained many elements of Internetese.
The now famous and much used “lol” and which corresponds to “laughing Out loud”, was already widely used at that time. Including almost all expressions, it was made up of terms from the English language, such as “brb” (be right back or I’ll be back soon), “cu” (see you soon or see you soon), or “ty” (thank you or thanks) .
The emoticons are also from the same era, except that only in their text version, since computers with graphic operating systems, such as Windows, did not yet exist. Thus, the popular “little faces” in all their variations ( , , , 
…), are from that time.
It is important to understand the context. In the 80s, a connection even from a large university could not reach even 1 Kbps, not counting the lag (delay in communication between two computers) and, therefore, any and all “savings” in bytes exchanged, made all the difference .
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the IRC (internet relay chat) and which was for a long time the main form of real-time communication, and can be considered the predecessor of instant communicators (ICQ, Messenger, AIM, etc.), helped to consolidate and expand the “internet vocabulary”.
So, years later, when the first cell phones and SMS became available, Internet explorers just applied their experience and practicality to the novelty that arose.
Since then, to further accelerate the written communication that was increasingly frequent on the Web, especially young people, assiduous users of chat rooms, ended up “perfecting” the language, simplifying the spelling, creating symbols and neologisms and applying the freedom from speech to writing, starting to communicate primarily through this new virtual and dynamic language.
What are the impacts of using Internetese in other contexts?
There is no reason to write “delete”, if in the context used, the word delete is suitable for the intended use. In fact, erasing is easier to write because it has fewer letters, if we stick to the principle of adopting many of the terms in Internetese.
Although deleting is already part of dictionaries, its use outside the context of information technology reveals that language and communication are being affected by the frequent use of many of the terms that have become popular with the constant presence of the Web in people’s daily lives.
If, on the one hand, it constitutes a natural evolution of every language, as noted by specialists in the subject, giving dynamism and identity among the members of virtual communities, when using different linguistic and graphic resources in an attempt to approximate writing and speech as much as possible, it can be a trap for those who participate in a contest, a job interview, the entrance exam and in many other situations in which linguistic formality is required.
Some of these specialists have observed that Internetese by itself is not a problem, but the idea that everything is permissible and that everything that compromises simplification and speed can be abolished, such as commas, punctuation and even important aspects of spelling that are essential for understanding, can be risky.
There are young people who can no longer write correctly, even when they need to. Worse, because many believe that the way they use it is correct because exposure to Internetese is greater than “normal” Portuguese.
In one of the many examples available, it is assumed that the young person intended to have written in a questionnaire for a selection process, something like: “If you me hire and pay that salary, I I go have money to buy many things i want”, but instead it came out: “If you love me hire and pay that salary grandmother I paid you to buy a lot of things i want”.
There are those who find it funny and have no difficulty understanding the phrase, but in the context in question, it is not necessary to say that the candidate did not advance in the selection process.
Even in other scenarios, there are people who have difficulty and need to read more than once to be sure they understood what was written, even if no “special” word was used, as is the case with “tmj” ( we’re together) or “sla” (I don’t know). In other words, it went far beyond simply “skidding in Portuguese”. It consisted almost of a new dialect.
This is not a new situation. Historically and therefore, at different times and with all languages, specific linguistic codes were created and used by such groups, such as slang among surfers, skaters, hippies, rockers, etc. And as it was in those cases, those who are outside, do not understand them or have great difficulty in doing so, until this new code is naturally incorporated by all.
Internet in companies
Currently, many companies have included ways of assessing candidates’ ability to express themselves in writing, either through writing or through simulations that approximate some everyday situations in which it is necessary to examine the ability to use words.
This is because in recent years there has been a noticeable deterioration in the capacity for written verbal expression and a large number of grammatical errors.
The increasing amount of hours that people spend on the Internet and in circumstances in which Internetese is used, ends up conditioning the less attentive professional, especially those who deal with customer service, whether external or internal customers.
Partly also because the alternatives for customer service and business communication are growing, which are exactly the same or have many similarities with the many resources on the Web, such as customer service via WhatsApp, customer service chat, communication platforms (Zoom, Slack, Skype, Teams, etc), or even on the company’s profile on social networks.
During his lunch break, he takes the opportunity to check the networks on which he has an account and interact with his contacts, using the most basic Internet language possible. Five minutes later, back at work, he serves a customer on “Zap” and who, out of carelessness, but also because he is used to using that interface in a totally informal way, automatically and involuntarily replies to the customer: “tmj pcr” ( we are together partner)…
Too late, because above all, this new generation has learned to type on virtual keyboards, as fast or faster than they speak!
There may be no consequences, depending on who is on the other side. But it could also be a scratch on the company’s digital reputation.
The truth is that despite being widely disseminated, assuming that everyone uses Internetese and, moreover, knows its meanings, is the same as believing that everyone is on social networks. Does not correspond to reality!
Even between two collaborators who are known to know and use the set of codes that make up the vocabulary of the Web, the business environment requires compliance with a minimum protocol, after all, you never know if an innocent exchange of e-mail messages between both will not need to be used. in other situations, such as being forwarded to a manager.
Last but not least, in the relationship with internal customers, which theoretically would require less formalism and which in some scenarios is encouraged, after all, many communication software allow the use of emojis, one cannot forget that there is the coexistence of different generations and that not all of them are akin to Internetese, which can produce noise and therefore affect the effectiveness of business communication.
Conclusion
Internetese, while reflecting the dynamism and adaptability of the language, can constitute a communicative barrier in different contexts.
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