Is 'Lolcatz' the new English?

On Friday @Twitter released a tweet to it’s 16 million followers (note Twitter itself is even overshadowed by the likes of Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber) saying “Happeh Fridai! U can nao change ur language 2 lolcat in Settings. Hope u liek it”.

The tweet was an announcement of an additional language option being added on twitter.com/settings, which rather than opening  up the platform to speakers of the language would seem to be more of a bid to position the brand as

on the pulse of its very own #trends.

Two weeks previous Twitter announced the introduction of Vine which is hoped to revolutionise the sharing process via social media, and the ‘Lolcatz’ stunt would appear to be a continuation of the same PR campaign.

 

The tweet included a link to one of Twitter’s personal favourite ‘Lolcatz’. The appeal of these photos has been aided by the surge in photo sharing via social media, with platforms like Pinterest paving the way for communication with image as opposed to text.

This may have been intended as a harmless PR stunt but some users have voiced concerns about the move. @ScottGreenfield wrote “Twitter is beta testing translation of twits into lolcat. We are doomed.” If social media has caused a ‘dumbing down’ of society, ‘Lolcatz’ is surely the final nail in the coffin.

And on a lighter note I’ll leave you with my own personal favourite.

 

Source: Metro

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