When compare communication 10 years ago and now, lots have change. Previously, when we communicate, we only have our home phones or public phone, sending written letters and by means of “pagers”. Communication in previous years maybe very costly, say when you want to make an overseas call through your home phone or maybe one can communicate at a cheaper cost, which is by mail.
Now with the development of technology and internet, communications have been made easy and cheap. We can now even make direct calls, chat through means of MSN; windows live messenger and even video conferencing. Now in Singapore, it’s difficult to find a public phone booth unless you’re at the MRT. This in because, almost every Singaporean own his/her own mobile phone also nowadays, phone are equip with 3G function (Video calls).
With the culture and system that we have here, everything is fast ready available. This fast paste that we are currently having is affecting everything. People are starting to be inpatient and want everything to be done fast, even when chatting through msn, facebook, twitter and many more.
With this, people develop a new hybrid language “netlingo” eg, brb = be right back. This is a kind of language that people use to cut shot of actual sentences and also to communicate fast.
Nevertheless, with the development of a hybrid language, actual proper language will not be affected in terms of quality. People here know how to adapt to different environment and situation and communicate according to such. You will not find writing in a school composition with “netlingo” or sms language. You will also will not find anyone when doing a presentation communication with lor, or hor.
In summary, people will communicate according to different environment, this is because, they want to fit in the group and the use or writing of proper language is not affected.
You're right that we don't see as many public phones and internet cafes in Singapore as in many other parts of the world, especially in China. That, in one way, shows the prevalence of technology in Singaporean homes, but at the same, it may bring a lot of inconvenience to foreign visitors who may need to use public phones and internet cafes.
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