According to some, the language used today is simply the next development in the long line up of language throughout history. One source for this theory is Robert Logan, who put forth the argument that the internet is the sixth language - the first five being speech, writing, mathematics, science, and computing. The internet is the new and improved language that has been a recent development, and is commonly called hypertext. But this new language doesn't require any panic; Logan insists that "each new language eventually led to an information explosion and a new set of challenges that set the stage for the next level of development and the emergence of still another form of language" (3). The internet and hypertext is simply the next language in line - and will probably be replaced shortly enough.
In that sense, then, the internet contains a language that should not be avoided, but perhaps explored in terms of what it could mean for our society today. What is most interesting to look at is how this language is affecting our use of communication in the written format. The internet brings many exciting new possibilities, such as hyperlinking, vlogs, etc, that it is very possible that "by presenting us with a new form of writing, storing, retrieving, and reading, hypertext helps to make us aware that we may well have been prisoners of, or slaves to, a set of textual conventions that were so ubiquitous that we barely recognized our condition” (Purves, 51). By simply existing hypertext is challenging our ways of thinking and allows us to think, well, outside of the box.
This idea is demonstrated in a video by Michael Wesch, in which he shows how digital text can be easily manipulated, unlike written text, and how this malleable form of writing can change the ways in which we deal with information online.
Wesch demonstrates that an important aspect of this online language is that we can link information together and sort it through tagging. This interactive language drives the internet, and forces people to interact with each other through the online dialogue. Logan echoes these thoughts in stating that "one of the unique syntactic elements of the sixth language is hypertext, which makes it possible to link all Web sites and Web pages in cyberspace to form one huge global document" (78). A document that can be read, added, and supplemented by all.
This is a crucial part of the new dialogue that happens between users - a new form of communication online.The language of hypertext allows for all kinds of possibilities and the building of various networks. It's also important to consider that most of today's students have grown up with this language. It is their language. This is something to keep in mind as you look at our further pages, and realize that this evolving language is a part of the daily interaction of students, and that it assists them to build their communities, create collaborations, and even helps them learn.
Return to: 4.0 Advantages of Interactive Websites
Next Page: 4.2 Cognitive Overload versus Cognitive Surplus
Sources:
Logan, Robert K. "Making Sense of the Visual: Is Google the Seventh Language?" Semiotica 157 (2005): 345-351.
Logan, Robert K. The Sixth Language: Learning a Living in the Internet Age. Toronto: Stoddard Publishing, 2000.
"The Machine is Us/ing Us." Michael Wesch. Youtube.com. March 2007. Link.
Purves, Alan C. The Web of Text and the Web of God: An Essay on the Third Information Transformation. New York: Guilford Publications, 1998.
Picture from: The Language Banc
