ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the images, video, and other modes function in digital communication. Despite the importance of such modes, however, written language still remains the primary tool for communication in online environments, and the creative ways people use language online is still one of the most interesting aspects of digital literacies. In fact, there are a number of fundamental problems with this whole idea of ‘Netspeak’. First of all, many of the features associated with it such as abbreviations and non-standard orthography were present in written communication long before the invention of computers in genres such as personal letters, telegraph messages, and advertising texts. One important way such elements function linguistically is as what linguists call contextualization cues. The biggest problem with approaches that focus on media effects is that they start from the assumption that text-based digital communication is an ‘imperfect replica’ of some other mode of communication.
