Twit, Twat, Tweet; Why Social Media Grammar Matters
3May 19, 2011 by SheBeJack
If you think the verb used to post on Twitter is ‘to twit’, you may end up sounding like a twit, depending on your audience. Sure you can brush it off after it comes out of your mouth or say you don’t ‘get’ Twitter. However, remaining aware of the changes in the English language is a worthy effort, no matter your age. According to the Associated Press Stylebook, the correct verb is “to tweet” or “to Twitter.” However, I can tell you that the more common usage is “to tweet.”
Lest you think you are excluded from the ever-evolving changes in social media language given your age, think again. Perhaps your parents are struggling with the twit/tweet flub-up, but I read Millennial papers on social media as part of my work as a professor. We are all struggling with these new words.
Awareness, Not Perfection
Before you stop reading this post because it’s about grammar, let me say that the point is not the pursuit of perfection. You may recall that time as an 8th grader when you’d give anything to please your English teacher. Few of us are grammarians, but we all have the ability t0 maintain a peripheral awareness. We can also use the gift of the Internet to look things up on sites like Grammar Girl or The Purdue Owl: Grammar. Why? Doing so shows we are aware of the world around us and that we make the effort to care about how we communicate. Those seem like worthy initiatives.
Here are some recent social media words added to the AP Stylebook (links give word definitions):
- hashtag
- link shortener
- stream
- unfollow
- fan, friend, follow (can be used as a noun or a verb)
- crowdsourcing
- geolocation
- geotagging
Here are some social media words with common capitalization or punctuation issues (also according to AP Stylebook):
- website (not capitalized)
- email (no hyphen after “e”)
- smartphone (one word)
- e-reader (use a hyphen)
- wiki (not capitalized)
- Web 2.0 (capitalized)
Finally, a few observations based on my countless readings of student papers:
Capitalization
It seems there is a direct and highly unscientific correlation between age and capitalization; the lower your age, the higher the chance you display a decreased propensity for capitalize. So remember the basic rule that proper names still need capitalization, including unexplained capitals in the middle of words (which actually can be explained as marketers, myself included, attempting to make our brand look different).
- Flickr
- YouTube
- MySpace
- PowerPoint
Media’s’
The word “media’ is plural. Therefore, the word “medias” is incorrect. I also allow students to use “media” as singular. For example:
Twitter is a growing social media used by small business.
Technically, the singular form of the word “media” is “medium.” However, in my opinion, “medium” is an increasingly antiquated word in this particular context.
Who Cares
I won’t post often on the subject of grammar. However, not being an expert does not disqualify me from exploring and celebrating the fluidity of the English language. You can do the same by cultivating an awareness and appreciation. It’s the only way to preserve the quality of our language and ensure we do not end up like the movie, Idiocracy, which takes place 500 years in the future.
Quotes from the movie:
Narrator: The years passed, mankind became stupider at a frightening rate. Some had high hopes the genetic engineering would correct this trend in evolution, but sadly the greatest minds and resources where focused on conquering hair loss and prolonging erections.
Pvt. Joe Bowers: I just need you to tell me how to get to the time machine.
Frito: Oh, that’s easy. You go down by the museum and stuff… It’s like- it’s, like, by the museum… Sorta by… Actually, not really. More like on the street, you go, um… Wait, let me start over. Okay, you know where the time machine is?
Worthy follows on Twitter: GrammarGirl and APStylebook
As an English teacher, really liked this post. However, I think medium still has a place and, if we lose the distinction between medium and media, we’ll soon need ‘medias’. Also, you didn’t clarify the past tense of ‘to tweet’: ‘twat’, ‘twot’, ‘twittered’, ‘twitted’? Personally, I vary between all and more based solely on which one I think will be most funny in the situation… invariably, this is one of the first two.
Thanks for taking the time to comment and for your important work as an English teacher. I can appreciate your point about “medium.” I use “tweeted” for past tense.
Yes I am also keen on ‘medium’ and don’t see why we suddenly veer to ‘media’ becoming singular when connected to ‘social’.
Wouldn’t you wince if you heard someone say, “paper is a print media that is slowly vanishing’. Would we say, “I prefer to use new media because it offers so much more flexibility”?
Sounds very incorrect — dare I say it — ‘doublewide’ — to me.
More to the point, I believe the term ‘social media’ is temporary and will vanish, the way ‘new media’ almost has at this point. Facebook, Twitter and whatever they evolve into will just be ‘the media’ we use. And we’ll find those days when it was new, and called it ‘social media’, quaint and charming (sort of like those days when we called it The World Wide Web). What then? Revert back to ‘media’ being plural?
So I am for, “Social media (all of THEM) HELP us communicate to more people more quickly.” And, “When I use the social medium (the ONE) Twitter, it helps me get quick ideas out real-time.