oh, i almost forgot to mention this. why have i not blogged this earlier?
during my recent trip to london i observed an excellently nerdy, new trend among londoner cool kids.
kids in london have started to use *emote* sign language while talking to eachother in real life [rl]. the first time i observed this – on a bus – i was rather puzzled. but when it clicked what they did i was utterly exhilirated. brilliant idea, no? this is an extraordinary IM/chat to rl cross-over.
how does it go? well, you know how people “air-quote/unquote” certain words when speaking to ironise their meaning. in a very similar way london kids have started to *emote*. so while they speak they will draw two small asterisks characters in the air [star shapes] and then say out loud whatever they want to emote at the moment, like “hugs you”. or “LOL”. or “wonders if thats true”. or “ROFL”. or you name it.
its really excellent to watch them do it actually, because it adds a very expressive element to speech. and they’re not even cracking up while doing it. i guess for them, having grown up using IM and chat, emoting is just a natural extension of language. and in a way it is. i mean in real life you do have body language and facial expression to accentuate your emotions, but certain, complexer emotions are more simply expressed using air-emoting.
i wonder how long it will take until we start seeing this trend here in switzerland…