Technology inspires babytalk (4460)

The technological revolution has turned us all into mushmouthed babytalkers, and we didn’t even realize it was happening. I sat in class the other day and listened to the names associated with the technology tools that we will be using for strategic communications, and it took everything in my power not to crack up. Words like “Google,” “tweet,” and “Twitter” flew for hours, and it was hilarious to listen to adults use words that sounded like they were pulled out of a Dr.Seuss book. These words sound phonetically as though they’re in the lyrics of some “Yo Gabba Gabba” musical number. What’s the next big website going to be? Twinkie? Zoggle? What about the next social media outlet? Fizzy? Squeet?

Even the word “blog” sounds like some sort of marshland in a fairy tale. It’s always funny to listen to seasoned CNN journalist Jack Cafferty request that viewers comment on his blog. When he says the word, it sounds like he’s choking on something in the back of his throat. I have to write 27 blogs this semester, and I’m going to giggle a little when starting every one.

It was interesting to sit in a class where no one else seemed to pay any notice to the goofy words. No one reacted because these words and what they mean are so ingrained in everyday life and conversation that it’s almost impossible to step away and see them as only an amalgamation of the syllables and sounds they make.

Being relatively new to these websites and concepts, and really to the Internet itself, I feel like an outsider looking in. To me, the word “google” still evokes an image of little plastic eyeballs that I glued on puppets in elementary school. Will I be able to suppress the giggles in my professional life? The word has taken on a whole new meaning to the entire planet, and I feel a little behind.

I think about what astrophysicists deal with now that they’ve run out of words with which to name celestial bodies, so they just make them up. With the infinite possibilities presented by the Internet, I wonder if someday we’ll have to start naming websites thing like “WR124” and “M1-67.” At least the names of websites right now are a little whimsical.

Not only do I have to become accustomed to saying these silly words with an absent-minded fluidity, but I have to learn the slang and abbreviations used by what will eventually be my normal audience: people who know and use textual slang. As a public relations professional, I will have to field tweets and comments that will likely contain slang and abbreviations that I, at least at the moment, don’t understand. I will have to learn things like “ROFL” and “LMAO.” I will have to keep up with the constantly evolving hashtag lingo, like “#nf” and “#somf.” Hopefully my experience with social media this semester will pull me into these sites and words enough that I evolve with them, and the concepts and words become second nature to me as much as they are for everyone else.