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The appeal of internet-speech for me is not unlike that of schadenfreude, a German word without English translation that most nearly describes the sense of joy you might feel at someone else's suffering. In the throes of the internet, capitalization, misspellings, fonts, GIFs, images, emojis, and "keyboard smashing" all combine to convey meaning that plain English is incapable of. What's more, like schadenfreude, they're hyper-specific in what they express; whether that be in tone, feeling, or emotion. Internet-speech is honestly extraordinary and it says something that a publication like The New Yorker (fuddy-duddy enough to still insist on hyphenating "teen-ager") has finally chosen to acknowledge its power.
Acknowledge the power
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