Usually we assumed them to be either students or employed (at least at the oldest time periods) because colleges were one of the main providers of internet access back then.

But HNG never had any connotation about job/student status. It did have a connotation of being a male though... and probably one who was mostly concerned with their ability to get laid. I'm not going to say "usually employed" is accurate - it's more that there was no implication about that either way?

Yeah, that's fair. There was an anime my friend group was really into (I didn't really see the appeal) about a NEET and he was definitely young but was living by himself? I think he made money online somehow, I don't really remember. I do think these kinds of people are usually male; take that for what you will. But you're right that employment status is not an indicator of being creepy haha.

a few things i can think about now would be "q," "xq," and "x," short for connectors "que (that/which/what)," "porque (because)" and "por (for/by)." i have no idea why x is used for por, maybe it has some cultural significance i'm missing. and then when you want to say "estoy (i'm here)," you can shorten it to "toy," which I think is cute.

what you said about text speak letting us find new routes to express emotions and bring typing closer to verbal speech is really neat and it makes a lot of sense!!! i can see it when it comes to the shortening of the connecting words that i listed above--they are used so much in conversation and said without even thinking about them, so it makes sense to shorten them like that. thanks for your knowledge(: this is a cool conversation.

so where did you get the interest to pick this for your thesis???

Generally to punctuate, although I have occasionally used one mid-sentence.

Not sure if you still needed/wanted new replies, but I went ahead and answered the questions!

Do you use text speak (thx, u, etc)? Rarely.

Do you use acronyms or abbreviations? A few, but rarely. I use, like, LOL and IDK. Those are my main ones. I don't especially like smh or ones like that.

How do you use punctuation? Like you're supposed to, normally. I might leave off periods at the end of sentences in chats, but usually I type grammatically correct.

Do you use emojis or gifs, if so, are they punctuation, supporting imagery, something else? Punctuation, often. Sometimes, they can just be a stand alone reply. For example, I suggested sushi for dinner last week and my girlfriend replied with the starry-eyed emoji. Sometimes, when my girlfriend does something for me, I reply with this gif: Thanks a bunch

Do you reference memes or gifs in conversation? Only with certain people, who I know will understand the references. I don't reference them in professional settings or with groups of casual acquaintances, but I would with friends and people who would get the jokes.

Does internet culture influence how you speak in real life? Oh, yeah, for sure. I think that the way we interact changes a lot faster because of the accessibility of technology. A few years ago, gifs and emojis weren't part of my style of communication. That changed when I got an iPhone & people I talked to also had iPhones. I think memes and gifs and things have filtered into every day conversation at times.

What comes to mind when you think about web speak? I guess it usually refers to text speak, shortened words, etc. I don't actually see much of that on the sites I'm on, but I do think the style of communication on places like Tumblr, Twitter, and even Subeta use things like emojis, gif reactions, culture references, etc. in a different way that everyday conversation does, and that's more of what I think of.

I can ramble more about any of this! I realize now my answers are a little unclear at times, but focusing on a question and having a convo might help me focus my thoughts haha.

Do you use text speak (thx, u, etc)? Sometimes while chatting with besties lol Do you use acronyms or abbreviations? Yes A. LOT. lol, it saves time so why not :p (as long as they know what they stood for) How do you use punctuation? I’m using them normally as if I’m writing an essay (if you know what I mean) but sometimes when I want to emphasize something I put a period at the end of every word like what I did in question 2 :) Do you use emojis or gifs, if so, are they punctuation, supporting imagery, something else? Supporting imagery, like if I gave an opinion or telling something I use a smile: :) I use a frown face: :( when I’m telling about something sad.. I use the 😂 face a lot when talking to my bestie because we laugh about the most random and weird things xD And yes the xD face is used when im talking about something funny :p Do you reference memes or gifs in conversation? Nope lol, kind of tiresome to look for the appropriate memes or gifs Does internet culture influence how you speak in real life? No xD I don’t say lol irl. And I dont abbreviate things irl xD What comes to mind when you think about web speak? Web speak sounds similar to chat speak so I guess I think of that aha! yea in Chinese there’re no abbreviation, and we have our own emojis so if you type :) or xD they wouldn’t understand, so in our Chinese chatting app called wechat we select the appropriate emoji from the emoji panel :) we would never type them out. Another Interesting thing about chatting in Chinese, both irl and online, is that we tend to put a word at end of some sentences or else it’s sound weird or awkward lol We put words like ba, na, a, ya, la, le in the end. Also most sentences are complete simple sentences. Like for example: “let’s go out and play!” We tend to put the word ba at the end x)

Oh cool! That reminds me of my friend from Puerto Rico; she always says como che (sp?) as a sentence breaker. I know it means 'how do you say' but it's a fun kind of addition. I've literally always loved internet culture. Last year I actually wrote a textbook about memes, basically arguing that memes are an art movement. It kind of set the ball rolling to me looking more into the mechanics of internet culture.

Ok cool, in my research emojis are basically always used at the end of the sentence except like very specific cases. There's been a bit of fear that pictures will replace words, especially with emojis, but they seem to be used only to emphasize words. Emojis aren't super comprehensive; it's almost impossible to make a coherent sentence with no interpretation needed using only them.

Absolutely I'm still looking for feedback! It sounds like you use pretty standard but minimal web speak, which is cool. Since I find myself super engulfed in web speak it's really useful for me to hear perspectives from people who only use it circumstantially. It's absolutely true that different social medias have different cultures regarding webspeak. I plan on looking into it more although there are not many academic papers that reflect it. They mostly focus on Twitter since it is really easy to get data from.

Cool, thanks for your input. I can see just by the way you typed your post that you're pretty casual with emojis but still maintain traditional grammar.

Thanks for the info about Chinese chat rooms. Is Wechat similar to Line? I've used that a tiny bit. Also the sentence enders is really interesting; sort similar to ending a sentence in English with so or anyway or on the web using lol. I'd love to hear more about Chinese webculture if you have anything interesting. Even emojis! (I know particular Japanese kaomojis have sort of influenced English web speak but I wonder what else there is)

there’re many emojis that are non existent on the phone emoji panel (I.e. facepalm, giggle) :) I like the wechat emoji better :) Never used line haha...but I was told it’s similar to whatsapp aha. I mean you could also say let’s go out and play a” but ba makes more sense :3