Technology and Language

Theorists and theories that are associated with technology and language. Green theorists/theories are ones that support technology and language. Red theorists/theories are ones that do not support technology and language.

Nicholas Ostler

→ Instant translation technology will remove the need for people to learn new languages and might prevent many languages around the world from becoming extinct

Jean Baudrillard

→ Proposed the concept of hyperreality, where the distinction between reality and simulation blurs, leading to a reality constructed by media and technology

→ Users on social media platforms such as Tiktok and Instagram construct carefully curated online identities through selective lexical choices to curate aestheticised captions and labels such as “clean girl aesthetic”

→ This results in an artificial form of language and language is constantly changing to fit algorithmic trends and audience expectations

Algospeak

→ A linguistical phenomena whereby users self-censor words such as “suicide” into euphemisms such as “unalive”

→ Technological platforms shape what people are allowed to say, and therefore language becomes restricted, sanitised and algorithmically controlled

David Crystal

→ In his book “Language and the Internet,” he explains that in the 15th century, the arrival of the printing press was widely perceived by the Church as an invention of Satan

→ Technology encourages linguistic creativity, acting as a “linguistic playground," but people still need strong linguistic awareness to manipulate language and create neologisms and abbreviations