Left out Because Internet

Because Internet, by Gretchen McCulloch, studies the fluid landscape of language (mostly English) on the internet. Texting and the internet itself represent a unique space: informal writing. Informal writing has always existed in letters and diaries but with the advent of these new technologies almost everyone is writing informally almost every day. And it is Advent for McCaullch, the internet is embraced with an ecstatic reverence. It is an exploration of the evolution of language to include tone of voice and gesture to better communicate our state of being through text: lengthening words (sameeeee), changing the s p a c I n g or CaPiTaLiZaTiOn, or the shift from LOL to lol. Everyone should read Because Internet for these insights and the joy with which McCallach presents them. But that's not what I find most fascinating about the book.

First there are the seeming contradictions. McCulloch is keenly aware that the internet is a fractured place. Unlike many commentators who lament this fracturing, she embraces it. McCallach is thrilled by the possibility that the innumerable facets of the internet allow people to be uniquely understood. She is delighted by language and nuance that indicates, "we are internet people, we understand each other." At the same time, she praises the internet as a place where all are accepted. Yet, I don't think she realizes how daunting the barrier of entry to the internet is, even in mainstream “meme culture”, if you aren't a part of it. I'm not especially old or out of touch but I have never felt more so than when McCullough showed two memes, one of Philosoraptor and the other of Scumbag Steve. She said she chose them because she expects anyone who is at all familiar with memes to have seen them. But I have neither seen nor heard of Scumbag Steve.

The internet feels like a completely different world to me. The actions follow patterns that obviously demonstrates that they have meaning, but they are completely incomprehensible to me. For example, a friend from highschool recently posted a picture on Instagram of my brother standing in front of a white limo holding a Miller Lite. The caption read, "had to do it to em." I stared at my phone for what felt like hours. Why is he standing in front of a limo? Is the subject in that sentence my brother or his friend? Is the object my brother or the limo? Or possibly the people in the limo? What is the 'it' the subject is doing? Is it drinking a Miller Lite? Is it making fun of my brother? I found out later that it's a reference to a meme which I had never seen or heard of, and the joke is that the picture kind of looks like that picture. I'm twenty four. McCallach knows that the internet implicitly creates in groups and out groups but loves the internet for it; I am the out group.

Second, it made me think about my own socialization. She ends the book by saying, "somewhere, in this web, there is space for you." I don't feel that way. I feel largely excluded by the internet. Socializing on the internet requires a desire to do so. All socializing on the internet is voluntary.  Largely, most of my best and most successful relationships come from relationships that I did not initiate: my parents, my brothers, my roommates, and people that just decided that we would be friends. I am very fortunate to have these relationships. If I had to use the internet (or if I had to rely on myself joining clubs or "going out") to have friends, I would basically have no friends. The use of language is not so much the barrier to my entry to internet mediated friendship, but my own non-instigation of friendship.

There are no preexisting internet only relationships. I never have to be in a certain internet location like I had to be at school or my home or my college. For many, I assume, this is the draw of the internet, but for me that makes it an inherently unwelcoming place. McCulloch talks about the internet as the Third Space, the coffee shops, bars, or hallways of the world, where people meet and hang out that aren't work or home. I hate third spaces. Why would I hang out in a coffee shop when I could be at home? Bars? Nope. And I don't want to just loiter in a hallway. For me socializing on the internet feels like work. I don't feel like there is a place for me.

This difference in opinion is reflective of our thoughts on language. McCulloch is a descriptivist, language is an open source project to which everyone all the time is contributing. I am a prescriptivist, language has specific meanings, and those meanings are important and this should be preserved. For McCulloch, the ever changing social aspect of life is something she seems to relish and likes her language just the same. To me that seems impossible, exhausting, and imprecise. I'd rather stay home and read a book about how language works than ask a friend. Because Internet is a book that looks to celebrate the language of the internet and the togetherness that it brings, but I was left feeling more alone.