Editing Internet slang (section)

==Creation and evolution==
===Origins===
Internet slang originated in the early days of the Internet with some terms predating the Internet.<ref>{{cite web|last=Daw |first=David |url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/248526/web_jargon_origins_revealed.html |title=Web Jargon Origins Revealed |publisher=Pcworld.com |access-date=18 January 2014}}</ref> The earliest forms of Internet slang assumed people's knowledge of programming and commands in a specific language.<ref>{{Cite book|last=McCulloch|first=Gretchen|title=Because Internet: Understanding the Rules of Language|publisher=Riverhead Books|year=2019|isbn=9780735210950|location=New York|pages=88–95}}</ref> Internet slang is used in [[chat room]]s, [[social networking service]]s, [[online game]]s, [[video game]]s and in the [[online community]]. Since 1979, users of communications networks like [[Usenet]] created their own [[shorthand]].<ref>{{cite web |author=Meggyn |url=http://theunderenlightened.com/trolling-for-slang-the-origins-of-internet-werdz/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130216224540/http://theunderenlightened.com/trolling-for-slang-the-origins-of-internet-werdz/ |archive-date=16 February 2013 |title=Trolling For Slang: The Origins of Internet Werdz |publisher=Theunderenlightened.com |access-date=18 January 2014 }}</ref>

===Motivations===
The primary motivation for using a slang unique to the Internet is to ease [[communication]]. However, while Internet slang shortcuts save time for the writer, they take two times as long for the reader to understand, according to a study by the [[University of Tasmania]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Don't be 404, know the tech slang|date=10 December 2008|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7775013.stm|work=[[BBC]]}}</ref> On the other hand, similar to the use of slang in traditional face-to-face speech or written language, slang on the Internet is often a way of indicating [[social group|group membership]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Crystal, David |date=1997|title= The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language|edition= Second |location=Cambridge|publisher= Cambridge University Press}}</ref>

Internet slang provides a channel which facilitates and constrains the ability to communicate in ways that are fundamentally different from those found in other semiotic situations. Many of the expectations and practices which we associate with spoken and written language are no longer applicable. The Internet itself is ideal for new slang to emerge because of the richness of the medium and the availability of information.<ref name=bas /> Slang is also thus motivated for the "creation and sustenance of online communities".<ref name=bas /> These communities, in turn, play a role in solidarity or identification<ref name=Yin /><ref name= miao /> or an exclusive or common cause.<ref name=mud />

David Crystal distinguishes among five areas of the Internet where slang is used — [[World Wide Web|The Web itself]], [[email]], [[asynchronous communication|asynchronous chat]] (for example, [[mailing list]]s), [[synchronous communication|synchronous chat]] (for example, [[Internet Relay Chat]]), and [[virtual world]]s.<ref name=Davidcrystal>{{cite book|author=Crystal, David |date=2001|title= Language and the Internet|url=https://archive.org/details/languageinternet0000crys |url-access=registration |location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn= 0-521-80212-1}}</ref> The [[computer|electronic]] character of the channel has a fundamental influence on the language of the medium. Options for communication are constrained by the nature of the hardware needed in order to gain Internet access. Thus, productive linguistic capacity (the type of information that can be sent) is determined by the preassigned characters on a [[Computer keyboard|keyboard]], and receptive linguistic capacity (the type of information that can be seen) is determined by the size and configuration of the screen. Additionally, both sender and receiver are constrained linguistically by the properties of the internet [[software]], [[computer hardware]], and [[networking hardware]] linking them. Electronic discourse refers to writing that is "very often reads as if it were being spoken – that is, as if the sender were writing talking".<ref>{{cite book |author=Davis, B.H. |author2=Brewer, J. P. |date=1997 |title=Electronic discourse: linguistic individuals in virtual space|location= Albany, NY|publisher= State University of New York Press}}</ref>