Some Internet Sayings You Don't Hear These Days

[franceslievens]

RL, as in "Was away. RL." Real Life hardly interferes with a person's internet habit nowadays. Smartphones, WiFi, hotspots, broadband have all made sure always on is for everyone. Now the distinction can be made between on or off: you're on at all times or you're not. And right now, everyone is on – unless your social network of choice is suffering from a denial of service attack.

Lurking, or reading along without making yourself known is no big issue. There is so much to read that everyone must be primarily a lurker, a reader. We only engage in conversation when it can be direct chatting, preferably with people we already know. The wish for anonymity or at least a pseudonym isn't so all pervasive either. Everyone is on the internet, so there isn't much that should stay hidden.

MoNiCkErS that alternate between all caps and regular fonts. It was a salute to the hacker-culture that built the world wide web, a way to become part of this subversive culture. When those teenage hackers grew up, their pseudonyms lost the all caps. It's easier to write, and today's youth has thrown out every form of capitals. Who needs pseudonyms anyway?

Anything else that fits on this list?

Comments

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

Darth RealLIfe kept me from commenting in the past few days, but you're right, I was able to do some lurking on my smart phone. (Not enough brain capacity to take part in any discussions.) But of course, lurking as a concept seems to be a thing of the past.

E-mail and instant messaging have been replaced, too, mostly. Does anyone still remember IRC?

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

I remember IRC, but I've never used it. When I was at uni loads of people used it to chat with unknown folk, but I was always weary of that. P. used it, though. I did some chatting on AIM, but nowadays Facebook has even replaced the chat-service, and I end up talking to people on there. I don't think IM got obsolete, it simply got swallowed up by the all-compassing social networks. They've become portal sites, really.

I use email very frequently to send people attachments etc. It's a valid alternative for snail mail. Unfortunately some of my correspondents seem to forget that and not notice attachments I've sent them. But again: the social network is taking over from emails.