Customer Reviews

Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World

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Review by Richard L. Weaver II, PhD.

Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University in Washington, DC, suggests that online and mobile technologies --- instant messaging, cell phones, multitasking, Facebook, blogs, and wikis --- Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World As a result of focusing on contemporary language technologies, Baron pursues the answers to two questions: What are we, as speakers and writers, doing to ourselves by virtue of new communication technologies, and do our linguistic practices impact the way we think and relate to other people? Baron looks specifically at language in an online world. Of particular interest to me, because of my background in speech communication, was her Chapter 4, "Are Instant Messages Speech?" Her answer is no, even though there are speechlike elements, and the informal medium of IM assumes some of the dimensions of more formal, written language. Although written for everyone, this is a sophisticated book full of history, studies, quotations, examples, and evidence for her observations and conclusions. If you want a serious book that examines contemporary language technologies in a serious manner, this book has some excellent insights and observations.

This book was in better condition that I ever imagined it would be. There are no markings on the inside and somehow, even though it's paperback, the cover is in perfect condition. It was described as possibly having a good many markings on the inside and some wear on the cover, so I was pleasantly surprised. It also arrived a few days before I was expecting it! An outstanding buy for the price I paid.

This is an easy but interesting read; I enjoyed it overall. The book is best read with others - there is a lot to discuss and it makes you reflect on our current language culture. I read this for a linguistics class and it was the best book of the semester in my opinion. I would not have read it without the class, but it is still good. Naomi Baron is far fetched on a couple points, but again, read it with others for good discussion.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book and how it reads. If you are interested in the subject, it's great.

This book offers a helpful entry point for those interested in how new media are changing the ways in which we communicate with one another. It moves deftly from close-up linguistic analysis of online exchanges (text messages, acronyms like LOL and BRB, away messages on Facebook) to more weighty subjects, such as what happens as we can increasingly assert control over the ways in which we communicate with others, and what kinds of people we are becoming as a result. I especially liked the chapters on talk radio as a precursor to blogs and wikipedia, and the terrific concluding chapter (which I'll be citing in my own work).

For grad students and junior scholars, the book also serves as a great model for how to write on digital media - a subject that's constantly changing, yet one that evokes questions that are timeless and important. Baron is a colleague of Rich Ling, who's well known for his work on young people and mobile phone use in Norway and the U.S.. Both are good at providing insights into how mobile phone use is being used among young people (in Baron's case, college age students) today.

I am first of all surprised that this book has received so few reviews. This is a book which tells us a great deal about what we are doing when we are online. As many of us are online a good part of our lives, and many are sending messages of various kinds more frequently than ever before it seems to me odd that more people would not be curious about the process, and interested in expressing thoughts of their own about it.
In any case readers of this book will find themselves given a very large amount of 'material for thought' about the communications- revolution made by the Internet, and how it is effecting not only our ways of communicating with each other, but also our existensial sense of ourselves.
Baron points out early on that the Internet has taken down many of the bars and obstacles and enabled Everyman to be an Author. This has of course not necessarily been good for the standard of writing. Baron also suggests other interesting ideas, for instance that our being in continual touch with others, having an ability to report on our experiences immediately has changed the whole meaning of reuniting with and meeting with people after an interval of time. Once there was the catching up and telling each others' stories in reunion. But what happens when the stories have already been told, even as they have been happening?
Aristotle said 'human beings by their nature desire to know'. This book is an important one as it enables us to better understand the world which has come into being since 1994 when the Internet took off. It is of course not the final word on the whole process but raises time and again thoughts, and provides evidence and information which too might make us better understand how to use our time, live our lives more wisely, online, and if we can manage it, off, also.