Obviously, with a title like this, the post could fill up several volumes. So I am going to limit my confessions of ignorance to the realm of internet writing.
1) What does ZOMG mean? OMG I get, sure, but what the hell is that Z doing there? Zeus Oh My God? Zebra Oh My God? Zzzzzz Oh My God? It pops up flipping everywhere, even in the middle of sentences as ‘zomg’ (lower case I mean) which then looks like a word rather than an abbreviation. Or is ‘zomg’ a word, and thus seperate from ZOMG? Please, oh knowledgeable and trendy internetty people, please explain!- I’ve run out of guesses!
2) Why is the Internet now known as ‘the internets’? Do we have to have plurals for everything now, as with ‘feminisms’ (which is a term I hate although I cannot put my finger on why. Any suggestions welcome)? There is only one internet, right? It’s a big muddle of wires and signals and stuff… but it’s one big muddle, surely?
3) What’s the deal with using ‘z’ as a plural? Internetz, womenz, menz? How is it any more convenient to use ‘z’ rather than ’s’? I guess that ‘z’ is further down on the keyboard, and nearer the left little finger, but does that really make a difference? The only guess I can make on this is that it is some kind of trivialisation (or trivialization, if you prefer)- most of the time when I have seen ‘menz’ it is used to trivialise and mock feminist concerns about the reality of male power/ dominance, and ‘womenz’ (or ‘womynz’) to poke fun at ideas of sisterhood. I suppose a ‘z’ makes something more informal, more childlike in appearance, in the workings of the English language?
4) WHY DO SOME PEOPLE USE CAPS LOCK for some words BUT NOT OTHERS? This is a real, longstanding bugbear of mine (yes, along with all the rest). If your argument sucks, PUTTING SOME BITS INTO capital letters in order to SHOUT AGGRESSIVELY AT THE POOR READER will not help. In fact, I’d argue that it is a CONFESSION OF BEING A POOR WRITER, in the same way that my grammar often makes the same admission for me.
Answers in the comments, please… HELP ME in my total IGNORANCEZ! (oh goddess, writing that last ‘word’ felt awful… must wash keyboard!)
Heh, I have long wondered what zomg means. OMG I get, but what is the Z for? Very curious. I felt dumb asking, but I’m glad you did! Hee
I like to use all caps for some words to really EMPHASIZE the word. I try to only do that one word at a time though. Like, as in, “Wow, I really HATE the world today.”
Now my question- what the heck is a bugbear?
Comment by buggle — April 8, 2008 @ 5:27 pm
As far as I’m concerned, one word at a time in caps is okay… it’s when the person is trying to emphasise part of a sentence that way because they lack the writing skills to do it more subtly.
um, bugbear I think translates as ‘thing that continually pisses you off’, or indeed, bugs you. Maybe it’s a very British phrase? I never thought about it before…
Comment by Laurelin — April 8, 2008 @ 5:33 pm
Ah, like “pet peeve?” I like bugbear a lot though
Must be a British thing.
Comment by buggle — April 8, 2008 @ 5:51 pm
I think the s becomes a z at the end of the word when the subject (whatever the word is) is being mocked. The menz. Because technically there is no such word as mens.
The ZOMG, has a cartoon hit over the head “Zonk” connotation to it I believe. Then again this website,
http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/ZOMG claims the Z is a stand in for Jesus. I guess it is disrespect to actual use the word Jesus or if used it would imply one has Christian religion. Shrug.
I don’t know or have an opinion about the rest. Although I must say I hate teh. It makes me RMFEs everytime I see it because it has such a “I’m trying to be hip” ring to it.
Comment by ekittyglendower — April 8, 2008 @ 6:49 pm
The Human Ideas Generator responds:
1. ZOMG is just a misspelling caused by accidentally hitting the Z whilst aiming for the SHIFT key and perpetuated by people with little brain who think it is a craze.
2. See above.
3. A clever device created by advertising executives who found that their preferred .com url was already taken. Perpetuated by people with little brain who think it is a craze.
4. Clever people often include links in their blogs, which means that certain words are highlighted. Stupid people don’t know how to use google so just highlight random words.
Comment by joeturner — April 8, 2008 @ 7:12 pm
Here are my guesses….
1) It’s a joke like the ones instead of exclamation marks ZOMG!!!!!!!1111 or ZOMG!!!!!!!oneoneone. The Z key is close to the shift key so as “misstaken” OMG becomes zomg just like ! becomes 1
2) Isn’t this from when Bush said: there are rumours on the (pause) internetS …(about reinstating the draft).
3) This has nothing to do with feminism, just general leetspeak, eg in lolcats and other memes it’s common to use z instead of s
4) maybe they like to SHOUT?!?
Comment by tallbacka — April 8, 2008 @ 7:35 pm
You can thank Ted kingofcorruption Stevens for internets. He was pissing and moaning about how long it took to get an email message, and started schooling people on the internets being a series of tubes, not like a truck. He brought the stupid and the bloggers embraced it.
Teh menz is used when one is trying not to blame all men everywhere or men individually for behavior that society teaches is acceptable, and some men exhibit, which in the real world is unacceptable.
Comment by thebewilderness — April 8, 2008 @ 7:40 pm
I usually put “z” on the end of a phrase I find either silly (trivial works) or appropriated by patriarchy. It’s my way of saying “thiz iz how thingz are” and “this” is how I want them to be.
Kinda thing.
Comment by pisaquaririse — April 8, 2008 @ 10:00 pm
I’m so happy to finally know what ZOMG means.
Comment by buggle — April 9, 2008 @ 6:49 pm
I tend to use them sarcastically, ie when taking the piss out of a point of view i find offensive. (That’s usually what inspires my lolcat-type pics as well – the last one was of Enoch Powell saying ‘I iz makin riverz… thru ur door’.) Not terribly mature, but it functions as a way to let off steam.
Comment by Nella — April 9, 2008 @ 7:15 pm
I just do it because it’s stupid. Sometimes I like being stupid (making up for a deprived childhood).
There’s a certain person I refer to (deliberately) as Teh B… because he doesn’t deserve correct spelling.
Comment by sophie — April 10, 2008 @ 9:58 am
1) I use zomg rather than of omg when I’m being sarcastic or I’m making fun of something. As a satire – the real kind of satire and not the ‘I made a joke about women and called it satire so I could get away with it.)
2)First time I heard “the internets” was from when President Bush was talking about the internet and he used the phrase “the internets.” to talk about it. Since then people thought it was silly and picked it up either to make fun of Bush (and anyone else who might have said it in a serious fashion) or just because they like silly words.
3) Again I use a ‘z’ instead of an s when I’m trying to be silly, sarcastic or I’m making fun of something.
4) That one would be for emphasis, though I’m inclined to think emphasizing every second sentence like that is a sign of bad writing.
Comment by ispower — April 11, 2008 @ 6:22 am
That was interesting. Typing all in caps isn’t polite
Comment by Indigo — April 11, 2008 @ 4:13 pm
I prefer internerds myself.
Comment by Lost Clown — April 12, 2008 @ 1:19 am
I prefer intertoobz my own self.
Comment by thebewilderness — April 12, 2008 @ 5:36 am
ZOMG!!!111 I do ALL OF THAT, ALL of THE TIME on teh internetz, whilst blaming teh menz for everythingz.
My favourite has to Be the Random Capitalisation of words In a Sentence. Usually perpetrated by our bestest buddies, the MRAs.
Comment by stormy — April 13, 2008 @ 9:56 am
Yeah, such weird ways of writing, I agree.
Thanks for pointing them out, Laurelin.
Comment by Maggie Hays — April 14, 2008 @ 8:59 pm
You forgot “teh”. I think someone on a forum did a typo once and it caught on.
I think the ZOMG thing came from the well of geekiness that is L33T speak. See also “-zor” as a suffix, which I think means something similar.
Comment by theradicalrodent — April 19, 2008 @ 11:22 pm