Sitting on the Internet: Russian language and addictism of the virtual world

The verb to sit in (precisely with the pretext of “B”!) Forth the new meaning so easily that we did not notice when exactly it slipped into the tongue. Already 16 years ago - in 2002 - the heroine of notes in the glossy magazine "Brownie" "offended that he was sitting on the Internet all the time . " A participant in an informal survey hears this expression "for 19 years, from the moment of meeting with a computer and a network." But in 1999, the author of a long text about the specifics of being on the network never once uses the verb (this very network) - perhaps he is still too much jargonism. “This will not work on the Internet. To switch from the site to the site using the network, it is necessary for the maximum attention. ”

How did it happen that a new state ... activity ... what is there - a new variety of life! -In Russian became “sitting in”? (online, Internet, VKontakte, Facebook ...). Just because, clicking on links, reading and tapping comments, does our body physically sit? Well, actually, now you can sit in a social network and standing, thanks to a mobile Internet. You can actually sit on the phone (at least standing, at least lying): “I manually recorded the time spent on sitting in the phone”; " Do not sit constantly in gadgets . "

I think that we, talking in Russian, unconsciously “voted” for the verb , because we felt its semantic structure. Especially - the shades of the meaning of the combination to sit with the preposition “B”, expressing the presence inside (or “movement inside”; but here is about being, statics).

And this semantic structure has been lined up for centuries.

“Sit in” is possible if you, sitting on something, are also sitting in some limited space. In the wagon, in the corner, in the room ... and also - in the cellar, pit, prison in anticipation of the soon princely court or hiding from enemies. Staying in places of the last kind - imprisonment - has become generally designated by the word “sit”, just as we are talking about a person in the hospital, and in line for the apartment always “stood” if anyone remembers. Even if the prison is improvised, they still sit in it - both now and centuries ago. “It was very uncomfortable for a whole week to sit in a foreign apartment under the vigilant supervision of eight good fellows, doomed to a languid watch in the close space of two cars” (Nina Voronel, “without embellishment. Memories”, 1975–2003).

In pits, cells, pens, caught birds and animals are sitting. Deep, strong, that is, those where you can’t get away from. And not caught can sit in shelters. Reliably separating from the outside world. Sych sits in his deep and dark hollow, sits a Shchedrin pouring at the bottom under the snag, etc.

A nail sits tightly in a log wall, deep into it, and even bent: a lot of effort needs to be pulled out. Pies are sitting in a deep fiery cave, turning from raw dough into a baked one. Reliable - so that they do not go out, do not jump off - parts of different designs in grooves and nests are sitting.

All these cases, of any position of sitting, clearly have no attitude. But they have - to difficulty to make sure that one who (or what) “sits in” stops being in this place. It doesn’t matter if he hides there himself or holds by forcibly. This is not the case when the subject easily "enters and comes out."

... Well, then a person appears, sitting in some place, it seems, of his own free will. “I was still sitting in St. Petersburg and now I am in a hurry to my uncle” (Dostoevsky, “The village of Stepanchikovo”). More often, however, in the 19th century, one or another landowner and nose sits in his estate, even in his estate, even in the nearest city. Unlocked, everything ... This, of course, is not about the length of stay. This is again about a certain difficulty to get out - by inertia, by habit, according to circumstances. Holds something. Sucked.

I must say that the space in which they sit must not be small. You can sit in the estate, and in Uryupinsk, and in Moscow, and in Altai.

And yet - is it good or bad if a person “sits in” in ”? Do we approve of him? If he sits “like a ray in his hollow”, “like a bear in his den”, then we often do not really approve. He settled, drilled, does not communicate with the people - that is with us. And the person himself warns the interlocutors in advance that he, too, does not approve of his fixation, even depressed by her, like Dima from the story of Evgeny Grishkovtsy “Calm”. Dima gets rid of an unexpected summer idleness and loneliness, but in words about him regrets: “What is there! I spent all summer in the city ! ”

This last option - when he “settled”, “sucked”, and often with some disapproval - is already quite hot, quite close to “sitting on the network”. Of course, in it we are talking about a place, a settlement, a house-something physical. Despite the fact that the mental activity or consumption of the mental product could “suck” before, but we never talked about this as a “sitting in something”.

By the way, as they do not say, no less important than what they say! We did not say to sit in the book, whether it is an exciting reading-surge or labor. We said to sit at the book, over the book, sit down for the book. We did not say to sit on the TV, sit in the film. Unless sitting in dreams, and then rarely. That is, reading, watching a film, creativity-all this was not about moving somewhere, into a certain space, and this is where it is not easy to get out.

You can’t sit in a book/film, although it seems to be the same movement in another, virtual, world. And only the interaction with the Internet was felt as a metaphorical movement into a new space and “sitting” in it. The key difference, apparently, is that “inside” the network you can do something, interact with real space. Plus, it is even more difficult to break out of the virtual space than to break away from the book. The book, the film is finite, the Internet is endless, although it is limited - separated from the real world.

Therefore, in Russian there was no real alternatives to sit in the word; Only expressive synonyms of the type to stick out. And again, the matter is not in the length of stay, which some lexicographers now write, but in a difficult exit from the virtual world. About the barrier, difficult to overcome to the exit. Sitting is about the inconsistency to go out, not enter.

At the same time, we feel the worldwide network with space almost unconsciously, and equally unaccountably use the verbs of position and movement in space (not only to sit and stick out, but also to go, climb, climb ...)

Three years ago, I faced the fact that even linguists are not aware of this speech practice. A Russian teacher as a foreigner asked a black student who was just beginning to learn the language that he did in the evening. "Facebook." “What is Facebook? Tell the verb. What did you do? " He could not answer.

She tried to help, and it is obvious that her brain was rejected by the main and almost only neutral option today: he sat on Facebook. “Well ... how ... tell me“ Facebook ”...” Of course, she herself, without hesitation, sits on Facebook. But teaching to say so "somehow wrong." The internal linguist and external live independently of each other - this is rather a rule than an exception.

It turns out that we are “sitting on the Web”, a little embarrassed by this, as the hero of the Grishkovtsy was shy about his trance of loneliness and idleness. My friend, having read this note, added that in the verb in the above metaphorical meaning, and especially in its derivatives, to sit down, sitting down (even in the city, even in the virtual space) - the signal “SOS!” May even hide. A complaint with a shade of infantile self -abasement - what to do with me, I settled like a nail that was scored on a hat.

Finishing the article, I read in parallel - what a coincidence! - An article about people who engaged or continuing to engage in increasing the addiction of search engines and social networks, in particular the same “Facebook”, are those people who are now alarming, send their own children to elite schools, where gadgets are banned, go to different tricks, limiting their own use of the Internet, etc.

Addictism. The ability to cause addiction. Non -freedom that is. It seems that the Russian language reflected this property of the actually beautiful new virtual world is extremely folded and automatically.

Irina Fufaeva,
scientific. sore. Institute of Linguistics of the RSUSU

PS I foresee comments and additions - yes, in one article the topic of verbs of interaction with gadgets and the Internet cannot be revealed; Among these verbs there are also mastered borrowings, but surprisingly there are many Russians who have changed the meanings, compatibility who have gained expression (sticking into an iPhone at least), therefore, of course, the continuation should be continued.

As, of course, changes in the vocabulary itself will follow - following the changes in the virtual life itself, the emergence of new spheres and types of what we do in it and what is being done to us in it.