ЦИФРОВАЯ КОММУНИКАЦИЯ В ЛИНГВИСТИЧЕСКИХ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯХ

Introduction

Language is a tool for social adaptation of people, a means of communication as a social function of society. The pandemic provoked the widespread use of digital communication in all possible spheres, so the communication of people altered greatly, setting new social norms, making new demands, offering new opportunities. Let us look at the specific changes that have appeared in the general model of communication after the use of digital technologies. The general model of communication was proposed by R.O. Jacobson in his work ‘Linguistics and Poetics’. It includes the addressor, the addressee, the message (text), the message code, and the communication situation (context) [1].

Communication is a fairly finely tuned system, and if any of the parameters of this system is subject to changes, even insignificant at first glance, the consequences of these changes are quite global. The aim of our article is to analyze all the components of the communication model in the digital context.

Results

The addressor. The use of social networks allows managing the openness of the communicant's personality, making communication anonymous (creating fake pages, hiding or changing your name, depersonalizing the page for commercial purposes). Many people use this quality unconsciously. For example, when choosing ‘an avatar’ – your profile picture – not everyone uses their own photos. The anonymity of the addressee has made it quite common to introduce ‘bots’ – artificial intelligence for communication through digital networks for anonymous calling of recipients (in the advertising sector), commenting on posts on the Internet to increase site activity. Thus, nowadays people often encounter speech utterances and communication with artificial intelligence, often without knowing it [2]. In some cases, they intentionally start to communicate with bots in chat rooms when learning foreign languages. For example, the platforms Mondly and Cleverbot offer such services for practicing foreign languages [3]. The availability of such an interlocutor at any time, the costs of training make such bots in demand.

N. M. Vakhtel speaks about five levels of communicative competence: psychophysiological features of the individual, its worldview orientation, its language proficiency (language competence), social status and communicative knowledge [4, P. 51]. Digital communication brings deviations into all five levels. The psychophysiological features of the digital personality are manifested in the habit and tendency to produce and comprehend texts with images. Active communication in social networks gives a sense of being part of the global world; it affects the values of the individual. The social status of an individual in the context of digitalization depends on their ability to use technology. Their inability to use these technologies can lead to social isolation, especially it is true about the youth.

The addressee. The global network makes it easier to contact with people from different social societies and countries through social networks, it gives the opportunity to comment on articles on the Internet. The exchange of opinions can happen both in real time and with a delay in time. The speed of communication solves many problems faster. E. O. Trufanova highlighted the main characteristics of the modern information environment leading to the information clutter: 1) availability and high speed of information transmission; 2) aggressive imposition of unnecessary information by various information sources; 3) one-sided presentation of information in connection with the specifics of the work of Internet services; 4) the dependence of the individual and society on communication technologies [5]. The researcher notes changes in the reading habit that is caused by the digitalization of the message. The Internet text may not create a compositionally complete text, especially when talking about social networks. The texts there may present an infinite continuum with the addition of creolized elements, often of an advertising nature. So, people stop reading linear texts with clear composition, for Internet texts lack linear character and have hypertext nature.

Digital communication fosters clip thinking of the recipients who perceive the message as part of the picture, focusing more on the nonverbal code than on the verbal one. Colorful pictures attract attention and become necessary for perceiving information.

Information grows in volume so much that a new term "information clutter" appeared, denoting information that is irrelevant to a person, and is sometimes simply harmful (all kinds of fakes, manipulations, PR technologies, etc.). E. Toffler introduced the terms ‘information overload’ and ‘information fatigue syndrome’, the latter was found within 94% of intellectual labor workers [5]. This happens for the following reason. A person adapts to the digital environment; information coming from the outside world is important for their safety, so there is a craving for information. Meanwhile, there are two different models of knowledge acquisition: either it is a profound study that is a desire to find the truth, to understand the details, or a glide on the surface with a wide scope, "grabbing at the top". The clip-thinking, the availability of information, and its big volume push the addressee to the latter model of obtaining knowledge.

The message code. Digital capabilities allow creolizing the text. They present denotative and connotative information as an image and text integrated together. The choice of emojis, images, and memes creates an ideostyle of the author and allows expressing emotions. Written speech that is used on the Internet websites has similar features to oral speech: it is spontaneous, uses slang expressions, contains inaccuracies, reservations, and errors. The difference between written Internet speech and the norms of the literary language and written genres of speech is obvious. L.P. Dovgal, and S. E. Mikhailova in [6] mark the formation of a new style in the Russian language – the style of Internet communication, the distinctive features of which are written pronunciation, hyperintertextuality and imprinted colloquialism.

At the same time, a qualitatively new feature of the style is its spontaneity, despite its reproducibility; that means that people tend to communicate through text messages more than via telephone calls, and it is a rather rapid and spontaneous communication. Sending funny and attractive images provoking emotions is also a common thing of a digital era. It differs from the previous codes of creation of emotional background [7]. As the speed of interaction (responding to a message and receiving an instant feedback) increases, there is a search for code that would meet these requests – the speed and the volume of information in the message. This can be observed in creolized texts.

The message. The digital environment has provoked the emergence of new genres associated with the above features: blog, video articles, post, channel, etc. Hybrid genres that are in an intermediate state between oral and written speech appear; modern messages use a polycode semiotic system: in a single text message one can find a verbal and a non-verbal element, both oral and written speech, a sound and an image. In this respect the message acquires a polydimensional format, it becomes a very true-to-life reflection of reality that avoids language distortion.

Digital technologies have stimulated the appearance of neologisms: device, log in, password, user, story, etc. Such words often have English roots, so we can talk about the global introduction of English into other languages. This phenomenon is called "globanglization" [8, P. 92]. In turn, the English language, like other languages, is replenishing its vocabulary due to the emergence of new technologies [9].

The context. Since the Internet is a global network, you can communicate with anyone who has a site in social networks, you can exchange experience with professionals who lead blogs and courses (which are called ‘marathons’). The conditions of the pandemic have created a new format of corporate events on the web with their own actions and rules. The number of deliberately false information (fake information, stuffing), which is fabricated using photoshop and PR technologies, is increasing. The concept of "digital literacy" is introduced, including the ability to use modern devices and technologies. We believe that the concept of "experience of distinguishing manipulations in the digital sphere" is necessary [10].

The contact. The speed of response to messages is constantly increasing. The time for organizing the work of groups is reduced. But speed causes a lot of stress, and the inability to respond to a message causes stress and a sense of isolation [11]. At the moment, a person is in contact with more recipients than before, their social contacts have increased, and the closeness and uniqueness of the relationship is disappearing. As a result, there is aggression in depersonalized and mass communication, and questions about the environmental friendliness of language and the environmental friendliness of communication become relevant.

Conclusion

The study of digital communication should be carried out in the context of an interdisciplinary study; as an object of scientific research, it will attract the attention of sociologists and psychologists.