Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World (Hardcover)

~ Naomi S. Baron (Author)
Key Phrases: privacy settings, lexical shortenings, mobile phone practices, United States, Gresham's Ghost, Going Mobile (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

If you have one book to give to a lover of the lingo, latch on to "Always On, Language in an Online and Mobile World" --William Safire, New York Times
"My choice for most influential and seminal language book of the year is Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World, by Naomi S. Baron. She is a scholar who can write in real time with real words." --William Safire, New York Times
"Naomi Baron artfully combines historical surveys, research summaries, and findings of her own to give us a comprehensive, insightful, and thoughtful handbook for understanding electronic communication-what it is, how it works, and how it's changing our lives and our interpersonal relationships." --Deborah Tannen, Georgetown University, author of You Just Don't Understand and You're Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation
"This book, written by a leading researcher and commentator on online language, is an informative and readable tour of linguistic issues raised by contemporary electronic communication media such as IM, mobile phones, and blogs. The author skillfully weaves together cutting-edge technology topics with historical vignettes, and scholarship with provocative views. Naomi Baron is not afraid to take a stance on hot-button issues, be it the effects of the Internet on language change, whether writing done in electronic media is debasing standards for the written word, or whether we are changing fundamentally as social and thinking beings as a result of being constantly connected through technology. Regardless of the readers' views on these issues, this book is sure to stimulate reflection and generate discussion in both classrooms and academic circles." --Susan C. Herring, Indiana University
"Naomi Baron's wonderful book points out the many unique and fascinating aspects of what we now take for granted: the emerging languages of the Internet and cell phone. She skillfully explains how these new technologies are transforming the ways in which we communicate, along with how we relate to each other in everyday life." --Barry Wellman, University of Toronto
"In Always On Naomi Baron analyzes the ebb and flow of language as it confronts ever-new forms of technology. She is on the forefront of examining how computers and mobile devices interact with language, and how together they form the lens through which we see the world. Baron helped us understand the effect of email on language in her prize-winning book Alphabet to Email. Now she uses the same keen insight and crackling good prose to examine instant messaging, mobile based text messages, online social networking, and the effects electronically-mediated communication is having upon our language and upon ourselves." --Rich Ling, Senior Research Scientist, Telenor R&D

Product Description

In Always On, Naomi S. Baron reveals that online and mobile technologies--including instant messaging, cell phones, multitasking, Facebook, blogs, and wikis--are profoundly influencing how we read and write, speak and listen, but not in the ways we might suppose.

Baron draws on a decade of research to provide an eye-opening look at language in an online and mobile world. She reveals for instance that email, IM, and text messaging have had surprisingly little impact on student writing. Electronic media has magnified the laid-back "whatever" attitude toward formal writing that young people everywhere have embraced, but it is not a cause of it. A more troubling trend, according to Baron, is the myriad ways in which we block incoming IMs, camouflage ourselves on Facebook, and use ring tones or caller ID to screen incoming calls on our mobile phones. Our ability to decide who to talk to, she argues, is likely to be among the most lasting influences that information technology has upon the ways we communicate with one another. Moreover, as more and more people are "always on" one technology or another--whether communicating, working, or just surfing the web or playing games--we have to ask what kind of people do we become, as individuals and as family members or friends, if the relationships we form must increasingly compete for our attention with digital media?

Our 300-year-old written culture is on the verge of redefinition, Baron notes. It's up to us to determine how and when we use language technologies, and to weigh the personal and social benefits--and costs--of being "always on." This engaging and lucidly-crafted book gives us the tools for taking on these challenges.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195313054
• ISBN-13: 978-0195313055
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #258,542 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars OMG! A thoughtful look at txting! :), October 16, 2008

By	Lynn S. Clark "prof1000" (University of Colorado, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To better understand ourselves, Online and Off, June 7, 2009

By	Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

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.