The 'Status Update'

When we write, when are we not expressing ourselves? I am expressing myself right now, through a style of writing which is unique to me and is characterised by the language I use, writing style, and the format of the text I am writing. These factors vary depending on the particular person, discipline and time period, but mainly, they vary depending or the purpose of the text.

This week’s lecture was based around the concept of genre and the way language and communication is shaped by genre. Specifically in genre’s such as Diary entries/journals and blogs, has the format or purpose of these genre’s now changed, or are they adapting or evolving into different sub-genre’s with similar style and purpose but in different modes?

Facebook contains many different genres and users can express themselves in any way they choose, the main genre which Facebook generally comprises is a vague blog. Instead of lengthy journal entries, the majority of people only type small unimportant ambiguous updates of their current activities. Such as “at the beach with Brianna and Chloe!!” or “I’m sick of how slow people are at traffic lights”, these texts are stereo typical of generation Y, however also become more detailed the more a user relies on the Facebook as a social network and the amount of emotion and thought – or lack thereof – that has been included in the status. Bakhtin (1986) stated that ‘All language is framed in generic types – Some generic forms are standard, while others are flexible, plastic and creative.’

What could possibly be more flexible and plastic than a status update presuppositionally designed to be as rhetorical as possible for the purpose of being seen by an audience which you have personally chosen and are capable of limiting it to? The consequence is a very particular imagined reader (Pinckard, 2001-2005).

Online social networks haven’t just evolved the old fashion blog; they have created a whole new genre in itself, the Status Update.

Reference List

Bakhtin, M. (1986). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, Lecture 6: Genre. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au

Pinckard, J. (2001-2005). Umami Tsunami. Diary 2.0? ‘A Genre Moves from Page to Screen’, 320-321.

Presupposition: “Statements that assert information rather than introduce information” Levinson, S. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Image Credits

www.telegraph.co.uk