ON COLLECTIVIZATION OF LANGUAGE

In her article The Hive Mind: Folksonomies and User-Based Tagging, Ellyssa Kroski notes, “In a traditional classification scheme, a controlled vocabulary must be made in advance in which one category term is selected which includes all related terms. When future objects are cataloged it must be determined that either they fit into a particular category or they do not. In a folksonomy, these items can fit into multiple categories.” With this in mind, I would argue that the collectivization of ideas and language is doing society a disservice. Philologists must be scratching their heads at the thought of society streamlining language to reflect easier user-based search results. While there does seem to be a disconnect between online vocabulary and spoken vocabulary, there is still a gradual decline in the perception of words. Kroski uses the example of the words “kitten” and “cat” retrieving different search results, and while this is a valid point for the online community, in my opinion this is a good problem that should not be addressed. Each individual produces a different emotional response to different words and streamlining language ensures that we distance ourselves from these emotional responses. This issue reflects the recent discussions we have had in class regarding the difference between heritage and history. ‘Heritage’ reflects the emotional (and perhaps nostalgic) response to history, and ‘history’ reflects the facts and opinions pertaining to studied historical events.

Social tagging is not necessarily a bad thing – it allows for greater interaction and exchange of ideas. In the context of social tagging, where thousands upon thousands of results can be generated, individuality should be embraced. Take, for example, flickr’s image search; after searching through their image database it is quite clear that language plays an important role in providing better search results. If a user wants pictures of an “office”, they will be inundated with 1.5 million results, while a search for “office tower” returns 23,205 results. Obviously, streamlining the language used for social tagging does the user a disservice.

Why then, would the online community want to remove this individuality? Collectivization of emotional responses to language removes what makes us individuals. In a world where every fifth word is “like” (ok, a mild exaggeration) and ‘internet speak’ is becoming more prevalent in everyday language, we should be embracing the ability to express ourselves in the most distinct way possible. Language is more than just a tool to explain what we want, it is a way of expressing our individuality. Then again, it could easily be argued that nobody will ever be able to truly interpret our thoughts appropriately since everyone has a different emotional response to certain words...