Broadly understood lingo could be key to keeping people online, says report author

Online content creators can use specialized Internet lingo to help users feel good about being online, says the author of a new report on the subject. Neil Randall, a University of Waterloo professor, says web designers should take heart that a broad cross-section of online Canadians understand a new generation of emoticons and abbreviations unique to the web, and use them to enjoy their online experience and feel part of an elite group. The MSN.ca-sponsored report, Lingo Online: The Language of the Keyboard Generation, is based on a POLLARA Inc. poll. It notes, for example, that such common acronyms used online as LOL (laugh out loud) are understood by 86 per cent of respondents under 20 years old, 60 per cent of people 20-34, and 28 per cent of users over 35. Ninety-one per cent of respondents aged 20 to 34 and 84 per cent of those 35 and over use emoticons in email conversations with friends. Sixty per cent believe those emoticons help them express their feelings, and 40 per cent believe they allow them to express their individuality online. Randall says content creators should be interested in the results. "I think the major thing they should pay attention to is the ubiquity, the extent to which (lingo) is being used online," he tells Canadian NEW MEDIA. "Obviously, it’s an online code of a certain kind that a wide range of people understand, as we expected, particularly of the teenage market. But, it did actually span a generation. That was of real interest to us. Teenagers make up language all the time. They always have their own version of whatever is going on – this is part of the ‘cool thing.’ "But this seems to be much more broad-reaching than that, to the extent that I think it could be used in online content successfully. In a sense, it places readers in kind of an in-crowd, if you will. But it’s not an in-crowd that’s exclusive." He adds, "It’s about being part of something special. We’re still in the situation with online content makers that you have to make people feel good about being online. Not that they don’t, but you have to recognize that it’s still a frontier. People are up there and they’re finding things out and it’s cool just to be there…What this would allow people to do is say, you know what? You’re part of a really neat group, here. We’re rewarding you, to a certain extent, by recognizing that you’re going to understand these special terms." Randall says the potential for using lingo or short forms goes beyond email and instant messaging applications. He notes that online commerce, still an under-developed sector of the economy, could benefit. "Making people feel special when they’re dealing with online content is a really important thing…Anybody who owns a store knows you’ve got to make people feel special. There’s a way to do this simply with language." Donna Hindson, MSN.ca’s senior marketing manager, says the results of the survey will help the network fashion new services for both advertisers and users. She says the report will be used as market research to share with its business partners and to improve applications for the company’s eight million Canadian Hotmail accounts and 8.6 million users of MSN Messenger worldwide. The study is available at http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~nrandall/lingo-online.htm.

Broadly understood lingo could be key to keeping people online, says report author

News | 06/26/2002 4:00 am EDT

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