The way we communicate has changed dramatically in my relatively short lifetime. When I did computer studies at school in 1983 it was all programming theory; we didn’t have any actual computers in the classroom.

When I started working as a journalist in 1987 we used typewriters, the office didn’t have a fax machine and there was no such thing as a mobile phone.

I first started using the internet in 1996 and gained my first mobile phone a couple of years later.

Where I’m leading with this article is that technology has caused a shift not only in how people communicate, but also in the language they use and how they interact.

Two obvious examples of this are text messaging/IM and social networking web sites.

I struggle to compose a text message, but for people brought up using mobile phones it is second nature to abbreviate the language and enter messages quickly on those tiny keypads.

There was once a trend, mercifully aborted, for emails to be written in bastardised English with shortened phrases. Emails today are like the letters of yesterday, literary masterpieces, compared with instant messages and texts.

My 13-year-old daughter writes the IM language with ease. And what has impressed me so far is that young people seem capable of adapting their use of language according to the audience.

I don’t believe this will create a generational divide, as many “older” people will also pick up the new way of writing. Rather, I think English will have both a formal written language and an informal one.

The growing use of MySpace and Facebook, among others, is contributing to the cultural shift.

I’ve been writing this blog since July 2003 and was among the early adopters of blogging. Although interactive, a blog is one dimensional compared with social networking sites.

We bloggers write our piece, publish to the world, and others comment on our work if they wish. There’s an etiquette among bloggers which frowns on aggressive criticism and indulges the author. If you don’t agree with a writer’s opinion you don’t have to visit the site.

Although the publisher has control over content and comments, it is still a very public method of communicating.

Facebook allows invited “friends” to see what other friends are doing, share comments, photos, fun moments (like throwing sheep at each other), etc.

The rise of social networking hasn’t undermined blogging, but rather has introduced blogging to a new and wider audience in a different format.

Younger people (under 30) are more comfortable with social networking, I think, because it fits the pace of their lives and their other abbreviated methods of communication.

I suspect that social networking has also replaced the role previously served by families to some extent in the lives of active participants. People 20 years ago were more likely to have multiple siblings and numerous cousins they kept in touch with.

Although blogs are getting more readers as the internet expands (and that’s true of this one), many seem to be attracting fewer comments in proportion to the number of visits.

Again, I think that is simply because many readers are more comfortable with the social networking format. It gives them a sense of security and control to be interacting with “friends” rather than acquaintances or strangers.

The exceptions, in terms of comments, are news/political/niche blogs which have become commercial. The mainstream media are now part of this development.

Where is it all heading? Nobody really knows. I think there will be greater integration across various forms of media as time goes on.

People will cherrypick the features they want for their internet sites and how their information/interaction is presented and managed. Choice is always good, albeit sometimes confusing.