How Social Media Is Changing Language

I came across this article as it had been re-tweeted on to the ENSFCEnglish Twitter page. The article was originally published on the 'Oxford Dictionary' web page, and was written by Jon Reed who writes about lectures on social media. 

The article addresses the effects that social media is having an on the current English language, and outlines the impacts that this is having. For example, the article talks about how 'An alphabet soup of acronyms, abbreviations, and neologisms' has been created, due to the vast expansion and popularity of technology, in order for it to be easier to be understood. It also talks about how new words have sprung up in the English language, to do with social media. These type of words include Like, Status, Wall and Profile. 

This article interested me as i wondered what kind of things the social media had done to the English language. As someone that grew up with technology and therefore grew up listening to the 'new' social media jargon that has arose, i almost find it hard to think of a time when it wasn't classed as just normal to be using that sort of language on a day to day basis. Although I was surprised to see in the article, that the abbreviation 'LOL' (Laugh Out Loud) has just celebrated its 25th birthday as i had always assumed that that was one of the most recent abbreviations. This article also brought to my attention how popular the hashtag (#) key has become, due to the popular social media website Twitter, as before it didn't occur to me that it is now an important part of everyday social media syntax.

I like how this article appears to have a non-biased approach when talking about the language used on social media sites, as many of the same type of article try and make it seem as if the new language features created from technology are a bad thing, and say that this kind of technology slang is ruining the English language. Where as, even though this article does state some disadvantages to this social media jargon, such as how abbreviations and emotions can 'Annoy people with their overuse' and how some people may feel as if they are being 'Left behind' by it, it also talks about the advantages, like how such abbreviations 'Minimize the inconvenience' of typing with small keys. The main point that i draw from the article is the line 'Social media is making it easier than ever to contribute to the evolution of language'. This really stands out to me, as it shows that anyone now can create a lasting word in English, thanks to the internet, and social media. This article definitely highlights the ability that everyone has now to reshape parts of our language. 

Something i have learnt in A level English which helped me understand this article a bit more is how different jargon is used, and how it can be used in different ways. Either to inform someone, or to make someone feel left out, or stupid. In this case, the social media/ internet jargon is being used a lot, and making some people feel as if the cant keep up with it.