Lol, the internet, amirite? One can “has” no idea what people online are talking about—or implying, or punctuating through punctuation, or emoting through emoji—without something of a decoder. Linguist Gretchen McCulloch offers just such a guide in Because Internet, which explains the pervasive phenomena reshaping the English language online and, inevitably, how we think and feel and respond to one another. She covers the new uses of ~tildes~, the innuendo of eggplants, the generational divisions hidden in ellipses and how the many S’s of a “yesssss” can affect how someone interprets your excitement. (The responses to the book sported several.)
Buy now: Because Internet