Who is "chat"?

The internet is creating a gap between dialects.

Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.

2 legit 2 quit. —Kate

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When I was growing up, I remember one of my friend’s moms telling me that she read a headline predicting that my generation’s relentless use of cell phones was going to change the finger we use to point. Instead of our index fingers, we’d point with our thumbs, since that’s what we use to tap and type. That, uh, never happened, but ever since then I have been interested in the ways humans might adapt to technology. 

My near-constant use of screens has affected my vision. A few years ago my doctor instructed me to make a point, when I went on walks, to look at the faraway tops of buildings so my eyes retained the ability to see subjects in the distance. For others, the rise of “digital amnesia” is affecting their memories. Even the Millennial pause is a symptom—a holdover from an earlier digital age.

I actually view these changes pretty neutrally, since they’re happening in response to our environment. But the one area that’s been affected most is speech. Social media is not just changing how we talk, but also who we talk to. That is, the “chat.”