Blog Three: Place in
Unlimited Space
By Sophie Boden
By Sophie Boden
The old
saying, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ is out: the written word is in. As
we struggle to communicate through the arduous process of ‘thinking, relaying,
and on the other end understanding’ I can’t help but wonder how much of the
message is lost? Unfortunately I don’t think we will be creating a new method
of communicating anytime soon. To compensate language is constantly evolving,
helping us visualise or interpret the ‘message’.
As online communication
becomes increasingly prominent, the written word becomes more so significant. A
new vernacular has emerged to deal with radically different concepts.
Interestingly, ‘the right to name and have that name ‘stick’ is empowerment’
(Tuan, 1991, p.685). As language struggles to keep pace with technology, ‘new’
or untraditional uses of words is popping up everywhere. Thus, someone
somewhere is being empowered when we use the term ‘download’. Due to the
relational quality of power this means someone is being disempowered. So who is
that? Anyone unfamiliar with this ‘rising’ vocabulary. This gives groups
accustomed with the language ‘cultural capital’ (Van Luyn, 2013), effectively
silencing those unable to ‘communicate’ with this technical lingo.
‘Language
makes place’ (Tuan, 1991, p.686), and language unique to Facebook and other
social-networking sites is crucial to its construction of ‘place’. The
directors of Facebook spend much time ‘developing’ language (Eler, 2012). In an attempt to make
their users feel at ‘home’: essentially creating place. But they can only go so
far. It is up to us as users to engage in posting statuses and adding events to
our timeline to create meaning on Facebook. It is easy to get lost in the large
virtual ‘space’ of Facebook, but through interacting on our individual profiles
with networks of friends, family, colleagues we ‘create’ place.
Reference List
Eler, A. (2012).
How Language Shapes the Culture of Facebook Retrieved from: http://readwrite.com/2012/03/15/the_language_of_facebook_qa_with_head_of_content_s#awesm=~ofXu1SVzejYvG4
Tuan, Y.
(1991). Language and the making of place: A narrative-descriptive approach. In Annals
of the Association of Amercian Geographers, 81(4), 684-696.
Van Luyn, A.
(2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, week 5 notes. [PowerPoint slides].
Retrieved from: http://learnjcu.edu.au
Image Credits
Varadan, S.
n.d. Online Jargon, Chat lingo, Internet slang. Retrieved from: http://reviews.in.88db.com/index.php/technology/internet/2732-online-jargon- chat-lingo-internet-slang-know-learn
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