Category: Virtual

Leet speak has also been an interesting influence on You Have Been Tagged. Leet is an alternative alphabet used online to create a whole new language. The word Leet derives from the word elite and is used in online gaming or hacking to express accomplishment. It consists of symbolic writing and uses the American Standard Code for Information Interchange which replaces the Latinate letters of the English alphabet. For example:

There are variants of Leet as it was predominantly used by online gamers and hackers and has now entered mainstream. I experimented with Leet by changing my facebook language to Leet and there are various articles available explaining how it is a new language used by children and teenagers online as they find it secretive as many parents cannot understand it. Below is a video on the dark side of Leet Speak:

In our performance we experimented with basic Leet Speak in the first scene. As Unknown User/ Jane Smith came down the staircase the other girls would sing and comment upon the singing using Leet Speak such as LOL (laugh out loud) and OMG (Oh My God). This was effective as it created a bombardment of sounds associated with social media. It would have been interesting to understand more complicated Leet Speak for Unknown User and the Administrator as hackers and those hacked contain different versions of Leet Speak. This therefore would have distinguished the characters audibly as well as visually.

By Sorcha Rattigan