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I stumbled upon an article that couldn’t go unmentioned in the Digital Domain this week. Though this column is still in an infantile stage of development, I want to stray from the ‘here’s an interesting website and why you should visit it’ routine every so often to bring you information like this.

The internet, as we all know, is an influential and flourishing community. It is so much a part of our lives that it has developed its own culture, with an etiquette and language all its own. A shining example of its language following beyond the boundaries of cyber space is the word “woot.” Woot was recently added to Merriam-Webster dictionary because of its mounting popularity and commonality of usage. Though actually an acronym (We Owned the Other Team), the term has exploded from its video game roots to expand on its original meaning to now act as a general expression of excitement.

There are countless other examples of internet language permeating casual conversation. “Über” acts as a prefix for a word; it comes from the original German to mean “over” or “superior” and has now adopted the meaning of something being the ultimate. “Noob,” originally from newbie (which simply referred to someone who was new to something), has now become one of the most derogatory words I’ve ever heard spat at someone else. I mean it, pick up Halo 3, kill someone, and I promise you that before long you will hear someone spit the word “noob” at you with more hate, spite and venom than any other swear word, racial slur or otherwise taboo word.

The point I’m trying to make here is that this culture is engrained in us. We’ve grown up shooting IM’s to each other, disregarding grammar, spelling (sp?) and even full words. The article I mentioned above is about the depth of this engraining, for just how strongly does the internet run in our veins? The article I’m speaking of is about teens letting their internet backgrounds bleed into school writing assignments. Frightening fact: two thirds of teens admit to using emoticons and other informal styles in their formal writing assignments.

Imagine it. “Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye utilizes a stream-of-consciousness style of writing in order to further illustrate the adolescent alienation of protagonist Holden Caulfield :’(”

This articulates the fact that the internet is a powerhouse of cultural development. The question remains whether or not this is the evolution or bastardization of language.