Articles on the relationships between language and technology

Article 1 ‘I h8 txt msgs: How texting is wrecking our language’ by John Humphrys

In this article, John Humphrys tells readers how text messaging is ruining language. He describes his frustration towards the idea the way people text is influencing the way they speak in everyday life. He seems to be a man who likes to used proper grammatical sentences and good punctuation in all types of his writing, so he seems very disappointed that even he is taking on the lazy attitude towards our language. John Humphrys believes that the reason for our language being ruined is due to laziness; people who cannot be bothered to spend the few extra seconds to make texts/emails with proper language.

Article 2 ‘Cn u txt?’ by John Sutherland

In this article, John Sutherland is describing how text-talk became the new trend. He mentions how texting used to cost money per word, this could have been a reason for the way people abbreviate words in a text now. He writes “Abbreviation is the essence of texting”. He also shows a text conversation of how Romeo and Juliet would speak in text form. This shows how simple it is to write in abbreviated sentences. Jon Humprys does not show an opinion on this subject and does not say whether it is good or bad; he simply mentions that it is a popular way of texting.  

Technology Blog

The Guardian
Aimee Knight         
{Picture here}                                                                                                                              

Are people becoming Twitter obsessed?

Since 2006, when Twitter was founded, it has become a huge part of social networking. As quoted from a source: "There are more than 200 million active Twitter users. Eighty percent of all users access Twitter on mobile devices" - http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/did-you-know-some-facts-about-twitter-418143. With most people now owning smartphones that have Twitter apps, all you need is internet and you are ready to tweet.

 

 

There must be a downside, surely? People would ask. This is not true. You are limited to 140 characters per tweet, meaning that everyone's tweets are short and snappy - no one has the ability to waffle. There is a wide range of people to follow, ranging from friends or family to celebrities! Twitter is an easy way to keep up with the latest celebrity gossip, what's better then that? A wide range of celebrities use twitter, from Lady Gaga to Barack Obama. Justin Bieber is the most popular, with a staggering "44,418,729, as of 2200 GMT Thursday" as quoted from http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/did-you-know-some-facts-about-twitter-418143.

 

'You could be followed by strangers!' Some might say. Well, yes this is true. Twitter is a very popular social networking site with a huge number of active users. However, if you feel you want to keep your profile private from people you do not know, then you simply have to change your settings. It's as easy as that! This means that people have to ask to follow you, if you do not know them and do not want them to follow you, then you simply decline! Meaning that your tweets are safe and protected from people you do not know.

 

So the answer is, yes, maybe people are becoming twitter obsessed. But this is not necessarily a bad thing! So, if you do not have twitter yourself, then why don't you consider giving it a go?

 

 

Persuasive Travel Writing

   

Explore Paris

  

Are you looking for an unforgettable travel experience in an unforgettable place? Then look no further. Come and explore Paris and see what all the fuss is about.

Paris is a fabulous city, not only for its mind-blowing sights, amazing tours or Michelin Star Restaurants; but for the overall amazing experience. There is so much to do; you will never be bored. You can take a trip to Paris’ most famous attraction: the Eiffel Tower. It will be an experience you will never forget.

Considering visiting Paris? Then do not hesitate. Ring 0800 123 654 now to book your holiday, it will truly be the experience of a lifetime. Or explore www.exploreparis.co.uk today!

Geoffery's Monologue

This mornings lesson was about the Garden of Gethsemane; I could not even contain my excitement. Not. Anyway, Susan was late, probably overslept - no surprise there. My jaw dropped when I saw her barge in, wearing a cardigan that should be made illegal to wear. I had to kick it off with an apology for failing to defrost the church, mainly to Mr Medlicott as, as we all know oh so well, he has shingles. That's a story we've been told one too many times. The sermon was about sex, Susan looked a bit more interested than usual, but she could at least make a little more effort to try and not look as if she's about to fall asleep. I announced that after Easter the bishops would be visiting; everybody looked very excited! Well, everybody except Susan of course. Miserable old bag. 

When we got home, Susan decided to cook me chicken wings in a tuna fish sauce. Yum. NOT. She isn't much of a genius in the kitchen. I told her that I thought I hit a nail on the head with my sermon, I placed my hand over hers, attempting to be affectionate. She told me she had to go round with the parish magazine. I call that a lucky escape. I had a lot of paperwork to do anyway. She was gone for quite a while; by the time she came home I was getting ready to leave for my evensong. I asked her if she was going to come. She replied with a blunt 'no', the answer I was expecting, and kind of hoping for. I say I will just tell everyone that she has a headache, I can't have people thinking she's not coming out of choice!

Lesson Overview

I learnt a few new things this week in English, this includes Lexical Fields. These are a group of words that share meanings and associations. For example, basketball has different lexical fields, like: hoop, score, dunk, slam, court, bounce, dribble, etc. Also, I learnt that a connotation is not the surface meaning of a word, it is what it implies or suggests.

Also, I learnt the term GRAMPS. This is very helpful for analysing texts. When we consider the grammar, lexis and semantics of any text, we have to think carefully about what they suggest about the following: G-genre, R-register, A-audience, M-mode, P-purpose and S-subject. Using GRAMPS will make it easier to analyse text in the future.

Trip to London

In the summer of 2004, my Nan and Grandad took me and my older sister, Sophie, to London for a few days. We travelled by car on the Friday evening and unfortunately got stuck in a huge amount of traffic, the journey took 5 hours in total! When we arrived at the hotel, which was situated on the outskirts of London, we went straight to bed as we were completely exhausted after the journey.

We woke up bright and early the next day as we had a lot of things planned. We had to get the tube into the centre of London; this was more stressful then we thought it would have been as we did not know our way around. Unfortunately, this lead to my Grandad getting his head shut in the train doors when he realised we had got on the wrong one, which was very funny for us, but seemed to make him quite angry. When we finally we got into the centre of London, I was surprised at how chaotic London was compared to Bristol. Our day consisted of visiting Madame Tussauds, where we posed for hours with our favourite celebrities, going to see Fame at the hippodrome and finally having dinner at the rainforest café. The day was full of great experiences which I will never forget.

The next day was just as busy, we spent most of the day exploring the sights of London. London seemed like such a huge place to me, so I was surprised at how quick and easy it was to jump on the tube and get to another famous site. We watched the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, then we got on what I thought was a normal bus, but was actually a bus/boat. I didn't appreciate only finding out it was a boat when we were actually heading towards the water; I just assumed we were crashing and excepted my death. This was also an amazing experience and I loved every second of it. The day was fantastic but very tiring, so I was very happy when we finally got back to the hotel and into bed.

Our final day was a lot more calm and we only had one thing planned; going to see Hairspray in the hippodrome. The show was fantastic and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed a musical, as the last experience I had was when my mum took me to see 'Cats' and I almost died of boredom.

Visiting London was one of my favourite memories and even though I have already seen the sights I wanted to see, I would love to visit London and do experience it all again.

'Exclusive: Miley Cyrus Breaks Silence Over VMA Performance'
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1713414/miley-cyrus-vma-performance-interview.jhtml

This article is about Miley Cyrus' reaction to her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards. The singer has become very talked about since her performance, as many of her fans were disgusted at the way she acted.

In the article, we are told that Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke wanted to 'make history' with their performance, and I think it's safe to say that's exactly what they did. The article tells us that she has been very criticised, being called 'hyper-sexualised'.

We are told that she 'thrilled fans', 'inspired no shortage of memorable memes' and 'bested Beyonce's super bowl mark for most tweets per minute'. Her performance got a huge amount of bad attention from the public, but sadly she is not ashamed as she did what she wanted to do, and she 'feels great about it'.

Miley Cyrus shows that she has no regrets, as all she wanted to do was be talked about. She states 'I dont pay attention to the negative because I have seen this play out so many times'.

She compares herself to Madonna and Britney Spears, telling us "Madonna's done it. Britney's done it. Every VMA performance, that's what you're looking for; you're wanting to make history."