My mom is superwoman in so many ways, and chatting with her on AIM is an adventure. I never had the opportunity to talk to my mom online until I left for college- my family always had only one computer. I can specifically recall the day when I taught my mom how to IM. She happened to get her friend’s screen name via e-mail and wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. She definitely experienced what I would call technology shock because she couldn’t believe she was typing back and forth with her friend.
Initially, my mom didn’t know a thing about the norms of AIM lingo. BRB, GTG, and LOL were definitely not in her vocabulary. She used capital letters to start off every sentence and periods to end them. Instead of typing one word responses, I would get complete sentences or even whole paragraphs. Every word was spelled out with perfection- there were only you’s and no u’s.
But my mom was a fast learner, and in no time she was sending those instant messages like a pro.
It’s obvious that these norms aren’t spelled out for AIM users, but people learn them because of the people they chat with. The situation is comparable to how people learn “cool” trendy phrases (that’s hardcore, I’m hella happy, you're mad crazy) in face to face communication- and your group of friends, who you talk to, and what your idea of ”cool” is usually determines what phrases you will stick with.
The interesting thing about AIM lingo is that it’s entirely homogeneous. Everyone knows what LOL means, and if they don’t it’s easy to learn quickly. What enforces the use of such lingo? Because AIM is meant to be “instant,” one leviathan that hovers over AIM users is the convenience factor itself. It takes a lot less time to use abbreviations rather than spelling everything out, so the convenience factor is almost a “self leviathan” in that people use the lingo in order to save themselves the extra time and effort.
Another leviathan that contributes to the use of AIM lingo is the idea of being accepted into the group. My mom rapidly adopted AIM norms because it was how I talked to her online, and since she knew that I knew what I was doing, she followed my example. However, AIM does not have a particular overseer that enforces the use of such languuage. Rather, as Wallace states, "in unmoderated settings, the Leviathan would emerge with more difficulty were it not for human willingness to conform." Both offline and online, we choose to use certain phrases, not because our friends make us, but because we want to fit in. Convenience and acceptance interplay as important leviathans in governing the use of Aim lingo.
It’s not that I would have stopped talking to my mom on AIM if she didn't incorporate the norms of AIM (my mom will be cool to me no matter what). But she got the hang of it, and now if she decides to enter the world of chat rooms, she'll be well equipped to fit right in.
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Hey Diane! I think your post was really interesting. The idea of the self-Leviathan governing conduct online was particularly insightful. It seems like behavior on AIM is controlled both by internal desire to save oneself time and effort and also the desire to conform to the speech of others online. No one wants to look like they don’t know the acronyms and abbreviations common in online writing for fear of being labeled as “uncool.” I sometimes talk to my mother on AIM as well. She picked up on the slang too, but based on her language use, you would still be able to tell that she still isn’t entirely comfortable communicating in computer mediated environments.
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