The internet language and community: An observation

Language, both written and spoken, plays an important role in human culture. The internet, as a new medium, has changed the evolution of today's language in certain ways. Martian Language (ML), as net lingo is called in Taiwan, has been viewed with disdain, but it may contain cues to future cultural development. This study looks into how communities use ML and how this net lingo is formed and distributed. Furthermore, it identifies how the hashing functions used may affect the future. This research studies samples collected from undergraduate Management Information System (MIS) students in Taiwan and classifies ML terms into six categories according to their formation. We have also detected that their usage follows a skewed distribution and that the community affects the usage pattern of the users.