Because Internet

It's been years since the-toast shuttered, but back when they were still posting (and I was reading) every day, I loved Gretchen McCulloch's column, in which she analyzed internet slang as a linguist. When the site went down, I lost track of McCulloch (and a handful of other people whose writing I always looked forward to). Happily, she didn't go far. She has her own blog, a column at Wired, and now a book! It took the book release for her to come back on my radar, but now I'm looking forward to reading more about the rise of casual written language and how it interacts with the rest of life.

Like all of her writing, this book as a ton of fun to read while also being incredibly informative and helping me shed my prejudices about the evolution of language. It helps that I can easily see myself in the pages (I'm a Full Internet Person, tyvm), and I actually remember a lot of history McCulloch goes through, from early chat rooms and AIM through the proliferation of memes and emoji (though I'm definitely a late adopter of the more recent trends). But I also got the sense that McCulloch really enjoyed researching and writing this book, which makes the material come alive.

Because Internet hit the sweet spot of nostalgia and new stuff. I got to feel smart and smug while also learning a lot. I'm looking forward to trawling through her other writing whenever I have some down time.

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