The Blitz Questionnaire being referred to in this project was conducted not to produce hard statistical evidence by to generate a sufficient number of data points to provide me with evidence of general trends. Since I have no way of knowing the backgrounds of each participant in the survey, it cannot be presumed that the participants were an accurate cross-section of Dartmouth Blitzmail user population. Nor it can be presumed that the results accurately represent the Internet community as a whole. However, for the purposes of this project, I needed some numbers to go on as well as feedback and input from Blitzmail users in order to validate my statements. In truth, this questionnaire could be used to generate actual data and an entire project could be done on Blitzmail language use at Dartmouth, however that was not my goal. For this project, I was looking to define trends rather than produce hard statistical evidence that "one in every three electronic mail users does not use capital letters when corresponding with friends."
The questionnaire did have its faults, of course. Since the original announcements I sent out to large lists of uses did not include a copy of the questionnaire itself, only a URL, I made it more difficult for people to respond to the survey without using another Internet tool. This means that not only did respondents need to have the good will to actually take the time to fill out the survey, they also needed to make the effort to hold down the command key and click on the URL in Blitzmail to get Netscape to load the page. Or, the participants needed to have the good will and make the effort to respond to my request with a follow-up request for a Blitzmail version of the survey. In any case, answering the survey was a two-step process.
Also, given the media which I chose for this questionnaire, Blitzmail and Netscape, I was more likely to get more Net-savvy participants than if I had done a person-to-person survey on the street. A general description of the survey participants is found below. However, half of my intent was to get a sampling of people who actively use Blitzmail everyday and are excited to answer lots of questions about it. Dartmouth students are, as a whole, more informed about the Internet and seem to use the resources available to them. There are even enormous numbers of them who spend their not-so-copious free time creating personal home pages to place on the World Wide Web. Since I am not basing my arguments and conclusions on statistical data, it matters less that my pool of participants were more likely to be Net-savvy than not.
"I found myself using blitzmail so much freshman year, that when my phone rang, it scared me." Dartmouth '97
I had expected to find the following in the results of the questionnaire:
I didn't quite predict all of them correctly. Here is a short summary of the results based on the responses of 100 Blitzmail users:
Looking at the participants:
Note: Numbers may or may not add perfectly depending on the category because it was not required that each person answer every question.
"Blitzmail is a very convenient way to get a hold of people..." Dartmouth '96
"I like blitz mail because it is getting people to write to each other again, instead of using the
telephone. It is reviving the art of letter-writing." Dartmouth Faculty Member
I believe it is safe to say that Blitzmail is one of the primary forms of communication at Dartmouth College, probably second only to actual face-to-face speaking. (I would rather not consider the likelihood that Dartmouth Blitzmail users spend more time writing e-mail messages than speaking to people face-to face. There are probably users who do spend more time on Blitzmail, but I won't be the one conducting that survey, I just don't want to know.) As a communication tool, it is wonderfully adapted to the environment. Every student is required to purchase a computer upon arriving at Dartmouth, there are network connections everywhere on campus, including in the dorms, and most professors have a computer connected to the network in their offices. Therefore, if you send a message to a friend or professor during a weekday, the odds are fairly good that your message will be read in the next 6 hours if not immediately.
"It is frightening what blitz does to people here. When the phone rings, there is actual surprise or amazement if it is an on campus call." Dartmouth '96
In an environment where one form of communication which is not regular spoken communication (i.e. either in person or on the phone) subtle and more obvious changes will certainly occur in a person's other forms of communication. The vocabulary of the first form of communication will begin to creep into other forms because that is the vocabulary most often used. "Blitzspeak", the language of Blitzmail, is everywhere. How many different ways do we use the word "blitz" every day? An e-mail message is a blitz (noun). I can blitz (verb, to send) a message to someone. I can go check my blitzmail (noun, electronic mail account). "Are you on the blitz?", i.e. are you signed on to the Blitzmail system. I have a Blitzmail account (with a capital B), but I receive a lot of blitzmail (e-mail messages - with a lower case b). "To blitz out" means to send an e-mail message to a group of people all at once. "I'm going to go check my mail" means more often than not that someone is going to go log on to their Blitzmail account. The United States Postal Service brings us snail-mail.
So, if you're fluent in Blitzspeak, the following sentence makes a lot of sense:
This infiltration of Blitzspeak into the spoken language at Dartmouth did not happen instantaneously when Blitzmail was introduced on campus 6 years ago. In fact, an alumnus who had helped develop the program returned to campus a few years later and was very surprised at the evolution of the Blitz-vocabulary. When he left, Blitzmail was just becoming common to use for announcements and leaving people messages. When he returned, the word had gone through a functional shift: you could blitz people and it didn't necessarily imply a violent act of destruction. More and more families of Dartmouth students are getting electronic mail accounts through commercial Internet providers. Some parents get accounts simply so that they can actually contact their child and get a response in a reasonable amount of time because he checks his e-mail constantly but seems to forget that his answering machine exists. As they discuss e-mail with their son or daughter, they become infected with Blitzspeak as well. For example, in a conversation with several friends, we established that we have spoken to our families enough about Blitzmail that if we told them that we were blitzing a friend something, they would understand that we were using the electronic mail system to do so. My younger brother first learned about e-mail from me and now runs the high school's computer network. Internet e-mail messages are blitzes for him (since he started sending them primarily to me) while internal messages on the hich school network are either "mails" or "posts."
The omnipresence of Blitzmail has also infiltrated the foreign languages taught at Dartmouth as well. An Italian drill instructor at Dartmouth first coined the word "blitzare - to blitz" to help his very beginning students understand him and each other better. "Blitzami qualcosa" makes more sense to a beginning Italian student than "Mandami un messagio eletronico" - it makes more sense to anyone who is familiar with the concept in English regardless of their Italian ability. "Blitzare" caught on and other drill instructors began to use it. Students on the LSAs and FSPs use it now too. Since "blitz" is such a fundamental concept at Dartmouth, it can't help but invade all aspects of our spoken language unless we consciously work against it. Sometimes, Blitzspeak and Netspeak even invade our actions.
"One other thing to consider is actions from the net. For instance, I note that since I used to use *pats you on the head* all the time on the net, I have actually started doing it to people in RL. ;)" Dartmouth '98
The same invasion from Blitzmail can also be witnessed in the written word. In fact, 25% of the participants in the Blitzmail questionnaire responded that they do indeed need to pay close attention when they are writing something other than Blitzmail. The chatty tone of Blitzmail jumps into formal papers too easily. The smileys and emotes cross over as well as one Dartmouth '97 reports:
"I have enjoyed the dynamic of getting to know people through their written as well as spoken word. I'm also one of those people who sends themselves reminders in the subject line." Dartmouth '99
Up until now, I've been connecting Blitzspeak and Netspeak fairly freely in terms of usage at Dartmouth. However, it is interesting to note the division between the two. Logically, Blitzspeak is a localized phenomenon, isolated primarily to the Dartmouth community and its satellite (the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and families). Most people around Dartmouth are familiar with Blitzspeak even if they don't use it themselves. 99% of responses to the survey reported use of Blitzspeak. Words derived from "blitz" are restricted to use at Dartmouth and with Dartmouth people for immediate understanding by the listener. Netspeak is a Internet-wide vocabulary with of which most Internet users are at least aware.
However, Blitzmail is such a self-contained system that in spite of constant exchange of e-mail taking place all over campus, Blitzmail users do not necessarily ever need to come in contact with the broader vocabulary of the Internet. Dartmouth's computing environment is unique. Computers are everywhere and there are many online reference tools and other interactive data bases for students to access. An average user, who doesn't have a lot of time (being a student or professor at Dartmouth) or a lot of information about just how much is on the Internet, can be more than satisfied with the Dartmouth Network without ever needing or wanting to stray out of home waters. A Dartmouth senior wrote, "i've never even heard "grin" mentioned in 4 years- don't even know what that or "flame" etc. is."
| TOC | Intro | Tone | Dartmouth | Grammar | Emotives | Acronyms | Quotes | Conclusion | Contributors | Bibliography |
Last modified by Carla C. Emmons 10 March 1996.