Because Internet

Understanding the New Rules of Language

By: Gretchen McCulloch

Narrated by: Gretchen McCulloch

Length: 8 hrs

Publisher's summary

An Instant New York Times Best Seller!

Named a Best Book of 2019 by TIME, Amazon, and The Washington Post

A Wired Must-Read Book of Summer

“Gretchen McCulloch is the internet’s favorite linguist, and this book is essential reading. Reading her work is like suddenly being able to see the matrix.” (Jonny Sun, author of everyone's a aliebn when ur a aliebn too)

Because Internet is for anyone who's ever puzzled over how to punctuate a text message or wondered where memes come from. It's the perfect book for understanding how the internet is changing the English language, why that's a good thing, and what our online interactions reveal about who we are.

Language is humanity's most spectacular open-source project, and the internet is making our language change faster and in more interesting ways than ever before. Internet conversations are structured by the shape of our apps and platforms, from the grammar of status updates to the protocols of comments and @replies. Linguistically inventive online communities spread new slang and jargon with dizzying speed. What's more, social media is a vast laboratory of unedited, unfiltered words where we can watch language evolve in real time. Even the most absurd-looking slang has genuine patterns behind it.

Internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch explores the deep forces that shape human language and influence the way we communicate with one another. She explains how your first social internet experience influences whether you prefer "LOL" or "lol," why ~sparkly tildes~ succeeded where centuries of proposals for irony punctuation had failed, what emoji have in common with physical gestures, and how the artfully disarrayed language of animal memes like lolcats and doggo made them more likely to spread.

©2019 Gretchen McCulloch (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“McCulloch is such a disarming writer - lucid, friendly, unequivocally excited about her subject - that I began to marvel at the flexibility of the online language she describes, with its numerous shades of subtlety.” (The New York Times)

“McCulloch’s book is a good start in guiding readers to consider the wild language of the internet as a thing of wonder - a valuable feature, not a bug.” (The Wall Street Journal)

“[An] effervescent study of how the digital world is transfiguring English.... [McCulloch’s] almost political thesis - the more voices, the better - rebukes both the élitism of traditional grammar snobs and the cliquishness of, say, Tumblr. It’s a vision of language as one way to make room for one another.” (The New Yorker)

Academic and Engaging

Because Internet is a linguistic study of language on the internet that provides a fascinating look into how people use language on the internet and why. In a culture where new language/culture is so often looked down upon, doubly so for the internet, this study isn't just interesting, it's vitally important.
On top of that, McCullough's reading is energetic and full of passion.

Such a fun narrator!

I loved this book! I’ve already recommended it to two friends. Heard McCulloch’s conversation with Ezra Klein on Klein’s podcast.

Too Short!

Really the only ~flaw~ with this is that I wanted more! And that I'm hyper aware of the language I'm using in this review and how I'm typing it!

Funny, interesting, historical, current

Highly recommended for those that work in tech, or use tech. Well researched and thoughtful.

funny and insightful

I listen to McCulloch's podcast, so I thought I knew what to expect. I was both correct, in terms of tone and humor, and incorrect in terms of depth and complexity. In this book, she had so much more time to delve into complexities and nuances, and yet she was completely honest in her incompleteness as well.
No single book can cover every interrelated point on a subject, but this one does such a good job of hitting so many high points, that she leaves you with a roadmap of which depths you want to plumb more for yourself.

A delight to listen to

Listen- up front I should say that I've followed the author's blog for about a year now, so I knew roughly what I was getting into- but I was still overwhelmed by the sheer joy sparking through every word. This book is just as much a love letter to language, as it is a dissection on the way that language has changed through it's exposure to the internet. It's hard to imagine this book narrated by anyone other than the author, and there are occasional joking asides about you, the audiobook listener.

I'm biased, because I'm exactly the kind of nerd who would get exited about a book on the way grammar has changed to reflect the more informal settings the internet provides- but even if you aren't already, this book is about guaranteed to make you one through sheer enthusiasm for the subject alone.

(and, yes, this book has made me very self aware of how i type to friends and loved ones, and caused the occasional muffled swear as i realized i was doing something i hadn't realized was something i did)

A good overview of the evolving language(s) of internet users

The author is a great reader. She does an awesome job with the typographical stuff - pronouncing “fadesmash” stuff like asdhfhshs, discussing lowercase ce uppercase, etc. without breaking the flow of the audiobook. She’s a little fast - this is one book I won’t be listening to on 1.25x speed.

The content is a welcome survey of the language of the internet. Even back to the old days of my youth. It’s really weird hearing about gaps in the written documentation of stuff a few decades ago! It greatly increases my sympathy for linguists dealing with issues centuries ago. And interesting to hear about a language area where written form is the primary form!

Informative and entertaining!

Very informative and entertaining. Highly recommended to anyone who is even slightly interested in the development of internet culture and language.

Interesting, informative and entertaining

Surprisingly for an author read book, the performance was great too.
Giving this to my Dad for his 91rst birthday. He’s not online but he loves language and is interested in reading the book too. That way he can understand the « ambient culture » as the author puts it.

Super fun, informative and well researched

Super fun, informative and well researched. If you like language, English and the internet, get this book!

I listened to the audiobook version, which also helped me understand how native English speakers hear memes and Internet speak in their heads.

I’ll have to get the text version for academic reference, it has lots of very interesting and quotable concepts.