Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2023, Blaðsíða 154

helga hilmisdóttir
Comments and discussion points
from the first opponent at the doctoral defense
of Vanessa Monika Isenmann
with the candidate’s replies

1. Introductory statement
I think it is safe to say that during the last fifteen years or so, social media has
revolutionized the way Icelanders communicate with each other. Like all new
communication technology, the rise of social media has brought new ways to use
the Icelandic language, and that is what Vanessa Isenmann’s dissertation is about.
The topic Vanessa has chosen can also be summarized as “how technology
shapes the way we use language”. When the telephone was introduced in Iceland,
we learned how to speak with people that were not physically present. The
absence of gestures and gaze in combination with sometimes poor sound quality
created new ways to interact with the person at the other end of the line.
Similarly, with social media such as Facebook, new patterns of communication
have been emerging. This time, instead of learning how to speak slowly and
clearly into a receiver, we have learned to use a keyboard to interact with an
unknown number of non-present recipents by means of characters, symbols,
links and images in digital spaces.
Icelanders are active users of social media. As Vanessa discusses in her thesis,
Facebook is an important tool, not only to socialize and keep in touch with
friends and family, but also as a way to organize events and to promote ideas and
try to have an impact on public opinon. This, as is shown in the dissertation, has
an affect on how we write messages in Icelandic. The style depends on the func-
tion of the post, the way we want to present ourselves, and who we hope to
reach.
At the same time, social media has made our world smaller. The informants
in Vanessa’s thesis have friends all over the world and they do not all speak
Icelandic. Thus, the question of language choice also becomes relevant in the con-
text of social media. We do not only have to think about the degree of formality
we want to use but also what language we choose when we write a post on
Facebook. Sometimes, in Icelandic public debate, people complain about random