ABSTRACT
Specialist language varieties, whether the language of video gamers or of physicists, are technologies, just like computers, televisions, or phones. Technologies are tools that allow us to do certain things. Despite many claims to the contrary, technologies have no effects—good or bad—apart from the specific situations or settings in which they are used. In different situations they have different effects. When children watch television with an adult who gets them to think and talk about what they are watching, it can be good for the children’s cognitive growth. When they watch alone and passively, it can be bad (Greenfield 1984). It’s the situation that counts.
