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In Always On, Naomi S. Baron reveals that online and mobile technologies--including instant messaging, cell phones, multitasking, Facebooks, blogs, and wikis--are profoundly influencing how we read and write, speak and listen, but not in the ways we might suppose. Baron draws on a decade of research to provide an eye-opening look at language in an online and mobile world. She reveals for instance that email, IM, and text messaging have had surprisingly little impact on student writing. Electronic media has magnified the laid-back "whatever" attitude toward formal writing that young people everywhere have embraced, but it is not a cause of it. A more troubling trend, according to Baron, is the myriad ways in which we block incoming IMs, camouflage ourselves on Facebook, and use ring tones or caller ID to screen incoming calls on our mobile phones. Our ability to decide who to talk to, she argues, is likely to be among the most lasting influences that information technology has upon the ways we communicate with one another. Moreover, as more and more people are "always on" one technology or another--whether communicating, working, or just surfing the web or playing games--we have to ask what kind of people do we become, as individuals and as family members or friends, if the relationships we form must increasingly compete for our attention with digital media? Our 300-year-old written culture is on the verge of redefinition, Baron notes. It's up to us to determine how and when we use language technologies, and to weigh the personal and social benefits--and costs--of being "always on." This engaging and lucidly-crafted book gives us the tools for taking on these challenges.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Preface(p. ix)
• 1 Email to Your Brain: Language in an Online and Mobile World(p. 3)
• 2 Language Online: The Basics(p. 11)
• 3 Controlling the Volume: Everyone a Language Czar(p. 31)
• 4 Are Instant Messages Speech?: The World of IM(p. 45)
• 5 My Best Day: Managing "Buddies" and "Friends"(p. 71)
• 6 Having Your Say: Blogs and Beyond(p. 99)
• 7 Going Mobile: Cell Phones in Context(p. 127)
• 8 "Whatever": Is the Internet Destroying Language?(p. 161)
• 9 Gresham's Ghost: Challenges to Written Culture(p. 183)
• 10 The People We Become: The Cost of Being Always On(p. 213)
• Notes(p. 237)
• References(p. 253)
• Index(p. 275)

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Parents and teachers have all sorts of anecdotal evidence that shows young people's writing has deteriorated in recent years--and those who make such observations often cite electronic communication media as a cause. Providing both qualitative and quantitative data, Baron (linguistics, American Univ.) clearly demonstrates that new media "are not the cause of contemporary language attitudes and practices but, like signal boosters, they magnify ongoing trends." Surveys of convenience samples are usually suspect, but college students, as early adopters of the technology, are the ideal population for this research. Other resources, David Crystal's Language and the Internet (CH, Apr'02, 39-4397) among them, have examined new media's impact on language, but Baron raises two new, and far more important, issues. The first is whether there is a danger inherent in an attitude that precision in written language is unnecessary. The second issue is what happens to a society when electronic communication makes it possible to be always accessible and to devote endless effort to controlling social contact. This is a rich and accessible treatment of an important topic. Summing Up: Essential. All readers, all levels. D. Caristi Ball State University

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Naomi S. Baron is Professor of Linguistics at American University in Washington, DC. A leading authority on language use in the age of the computer, she has studied instant messaging, text messaging, mobile phone practices, multitasking behavior, and Facebook usage by American college students. She is the author of six books, including Alphabet to Email: How Written English Evolved and Where It's Heading, and she has been interviewed on "Good Morning America," "20/20," Fox 5, CNN, Fresh Air, All Things Considered, Morning Edition, The New York Times, Wire Magazine, Boston Globe, Washington Post, and more.