This story was authored by Antra Kalnins and first published at Macquarie University’s The Lighthouse. It is reproduced here with permission.
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If the question in the headline makes you flinch a little, you’re not alone. As the popularity of social media – and its associated ‘cyberspeak’ language forms – continues to grow, there is concern that sites like Twitter and Facebook are leading to a ‘dumbing down’ of the English language. Actor Ralph Fiennes even went so far as to say Twitter was the reason why today’s drama students struggle to understand Shakespearean texts.
But while new technology has unquestionably given rise to new types of language use, we shouldn’t be so quick to judge social media against Shakespeare, according to Ingrid Piller, Professor of Applied Linguistics at Macquarie and editor of Language on the Move, a sociolinguistics research site focusing on multilingualism, language learning and intercultural communication.
“If we measure social media language use, which has characteristics of both spoken and written language and is relatively informal, with the yardstick of formal written language, the impression may arise that the language is being degraded,” said Professor Piller.
“But it’s like complaining that apples don’t taste like pears.”
“It’s important we don’t confuse the medium through which we communicate with the level of formality we use to communicate.”
The good news is that most of us are actually very good at switching between levels of formality. So there’s no reason why your tweeting teen can’t also knock out a fantastic formal job application letter.
“Unless a person has a specific impairment, they will always adapt their language to the context,” Professor Piller said.
“That includes adapting our level of formality to suit the person we are talking to, the situation or medium we are in, and the purpose we are trying to achieve.”
And while sites like Twitter might see someone using shorter words and abbreviations to fit their message into the required 140 characters, it doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t have mastery of a wide range of multisyllabic words.
“Social media use is relatively irrelevant to the size of a person’s vocabulary,” Professor Piller said.
“Rather, it’s a function of the education they have received and is also associated with specialist knowledge – for example a doctor might use ‘fracture’ instead of ‘break’.”
Piller argues that online communities can, in fact, provide good opportunities for language learners to actually increase their vocabulary.
“This is particularly true of international students who may not have easy access to offline communities outside the classroom,” she said.
As for those who pine for the pre-social media days when people spoke ‘proper’ English, Piller suggests adjusting our expectations and embracing the fact that wherever there is rapid social, economic, cultural or technological change, there will be accompanying language change.
“No living person uses English as it was used in the 16th century, or even in the same way as their grandparents did,” she said.
“Furthermore, no one speaks the standard language – or what we imagine to be the standard language – at least, not all the time. Language change and linguistic diversity are a fundamental fact of life.”
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First, I would like to extend my appreciation as I find this article very engaging and significant, and I couldn’t agree more with the points presented in the commentary. Social media is undoubtedly one of the most used communication platforms these days. People use social media to promote, advocate, advertise, or simply for personal purposes such as expressing and sharing stories and ideas. I also believe that social media significantly contributes to shaping ideologies and can be used to learn. I support that statement that what is important is that users learn to know when to use the proper level of formality in a given situation.
Further, from how I see it, I think social media has become a popular medium for language researchers to investigate due to its vast data for new coinages, internet slang, and the like. Additionally, as pointed out by Professor Pillar, language changes and no one speaks the same way as the people from the 60th century do. Linguistic diversity and language change can most definitely be observable in social media. Thus, social media is an exciting platform to explore due to its richness in language research opportunities. I see how some would see social media as a platform that can potentially kill the English Language; however, rather than killing a language, I can see it more as an evolution of a language.
The Internet can be an extremely valuable resource for language learners who have limited access to native speakers, but in my opinion, it could be challenging for beginner-level learners to actually use this resources efficiently. Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are great for getting familiar with western culture, communicating with people who are from different backgrounds and have different perspectives, but in terms of the language itself, it can hardly be a valuable learning tool.
I wholeheartedly agree with the points made by Professor Pillar, that in its essence, language users are able to adapt to the various medium usage of language. I am still a relatively new learner but I have read a bit on discourse and genre. I do believe, as I am aware of various written genres and as an avid user of social media, I am able to switch from using a certain writing style in Twitter, Instagram, Facebook to writing texts to my parents, friends to writing an academic assignment. As mentioned by Professor Pillar, “That includes adapting our level of formality to suit the person we are talking to, the situation or medium we are in, and the purpose we are trying to achieve” and “Social media use is relatively irrelevant to the size of a person’s vocabulary,”. The same applies in language discourse where I will not be speaking to Professor Pillar, in the same manner as I would speak to my classmates, friends and family. Even within the context of my classmates, there are varying degree of communication from formal classroom discussions to informal outside classroom conversations.
I partly agree with some points in this essay. For instance,” the level of language decreases when the language social media use in an informal way but it has formal language criteria. Generally speaking, in the contemporary world, because of the development of technology, more and more people concentrate on the social media, especially what it speaks and shows. Following from this situation, the language social media use can wildly spread and people will imitate it as well.
I agree in some way that social media may be killing the English language; many people would not say personally things that post on social networks, so it is a way of save face and at the same time, a way of expressing ideas to a bigger amount of people than it was possible in the past. the point now is the focus of the communication through social network; if it is used to share knowledge, it is fine; but when it is used to be rude it it wrong. I also agree that it is required that people decide about the appropriate language to use in every occasion. there are situations in which a formal use of language is needed and some others in which people may have the right to use the language their own way.
I’d like to thank the writer for having provided such an interesting and refreshing perspective towards one of the world’s current trends. Also, I’d like to comment on Ralph Fiennes’ opinion. For someone like Fiennes to make such statement would not be that surprising, since he has been among the famous actors who are involved in bringing fantastic silver-screen works such as The Duchess and, the one above all, Harry Potter series into life. Such theatrical works highly involved itself in the use of “old” and “standard” English with, to a certain large extent, extremely formal language usage. However, it’s the ever-changing nature of technology and its complex involvement in the ever-expanding society of ours that we should take into account. Tow decades ago, “look-it-up” was the term to use when one needed to find some source of reference. And, most often, dictionaries would be associated with such concept, yet, now, “googling” does even more than the abovementioned term. The act of “googling something” leads the register’s tenors into a world full of all sorts of multimodal information. In the same manner, with a role of social media in particular and of technology in general, twitter would be able to contribute to the changes of the language as it changes how the language appears/exists in the society.
I have to admit that social media has a significant influence on people’s lives, especially in terms of literacy. However, I do not agree that Twitter is killing the English language. What about the sites like Facebook, Instagram and so on? They have distinctive names but they are regarded as a forum for discussion, a source of information and news. Back to the time when I taught English, most of my students say that they have had the habit of writing some posts in English or sharing their daily stories in English on those sites to practice learning vocabulary and spontaneously extending their vocabulary from reading other stories on Twitter and Facebook. We should not blame social media for killing the English language. Instead, we should look back and see how effectively we use these sites and English to reduce and/or diminish those negative impacts.
Languages are dynamic and adaptable according to purpose, tone, register etc and we can clearly see this with the use of shorthand, acronyms and emojis in texting and tweets. I have seen first hand how my 13 year old teenager texts his friends with no care for punctation, capitalisation, sentence structure etc however he is also able to produce well written sentences when necessary for homework assignments. One area he does struggle with is developing his point or elaborating his ideas with examples however this may be due more to laziness rather than a negative consequence of learning to text before learning to write an essay or paragraph. As long as younger generations are taught and appropriately educated about what is appropriate and what is inappropriate regarding formal and informal language use, I don’t think we need to be concerned about the degradation or destruction of modern day languages.
I don’t think Twitter is ‘killing’ the English language but transforming it in the new era. ‘Cyberspeak’ language forms like 20 years ago and our language is just ‘improving’ with our technology. It depends on how we measure our ‘quality’ of language. From the social media language use point of view, our spoken and written language is rather informal but it doesn’t mean our language ability is degrading. Our level of formality depends on the situation, the purpose or medium we are in. ‘Cyberspeak’ language rather is a function of education with the advantages of increasing our vocabulary bank, expanding our specialist knowledge and improving our adaptation of our language to the context.
I agree with the writer that the meaning of literacy transforms and being multiple all the time. No matter in which era, it always closely connects to ‘competence’. Simply, it is the ability to use written language to achieve purposes. It makes the link with social practices obvious. It is a way to do things with words. It is a tool of power, helps us to manage our social affairs and organize our social lives. Once we investigate the power relationships from literacy practices, we must study the semantic field. We find that reading is associated with thought and cognition early in human lives. In a literate society, the power code is either written or writing-based speech.
I totally agree with the points that Professor Piller made in this post about the way we treat informal written language used in social network pages. As they always say, “You can judge a book by its cover”, it is impossible for a person to judge anyone for their uses of such languages. It is true that when society changes, the languages change, too. And if you want to be part of that society, you need to adapt yourself into what considered to be the new “things” that it provides. Especially for ones who is keen to learn to use social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, learning to adjust yourself by becoming accustomed to a new type of language is just what you have to take for granted, making you able to find ways to “survive” in a world that never stops moving.
Statistics show that Twitter had 335 million monthly active users on average in the second quarter of 2018. It makes Twitter a perfect example of language/literacy being a power tool, as discussed in ‘Literacy – the power code’ in this research blog. The recent social media scene has given me the impression that ‘a language on the move’ can be compared to fluid which can easily change its form. Many would agree that language used in technology-based communication recently became a genre of its own. While some fear that the boundless freedom to alter the English language may lead to the doom of it, others would lean more towards Ingrid Pillar’s argument that the language users are perfectly capable of changing modes according to contexts and purposes. Often, users of social media platforms are drawn to the instantaneous nature of their services, thereby creating unique language patterns and sequences which led to producing a condensed, symbolised and modified language specific to the online world. This, however, does not necessarily mean it will kill the English language; rather, it should be treated as a new discipline abundant with possibilities. We, the beneficiaries of this micro-blogging service, are not only here to learn the English language, whether formal or informal, but given the change to gaze into the horizon and beyond on these platforms.
Social media can facilitate the creation of language. We used social media to share more personal information and communicate with more people. As a result, our ways of communication have become more formal, open and fast, and the influence of social media has permeated other areas of life and culture. BBS, weibo, Facebook and other social media channels have a wide range of instant mass interactions, and there’s never been a better way to get information without leaving your house.
In this technical era social sites have great impact on communication skills of layman, there is no doubt that a clear difference can be seen in formal English of Shakespeare’s times and now when technology is dominant and the way of thinking or communicating is changed. It is true that language is variable and blaming social sites because of level of informality used by its users is not fair. it has bright side that people who are not native speakers even they can express their views and the obligation of word limit has made people expressing maximum in minimum words. Apart from this, we must not forget the increase in popularity of English language at global level after the introduction of such websites.
Halliday have said Language is a semiotics and meaning system. Members of communities not only utilise language, but also enrich it, so that language can be used to accurately communicate in different contexts. Also, a Twitter language has been created within typical community, for example using initials of phrases in texting, CBC (cannot be bothered), ATM (at the moment), NWs (No worries). When language is used in the most appropriate way, its power would be maximised, and hence people in a community are able to communicate most efficiently.
I do not think that social media is killing “the English language”. This may be because the way some linguists define errors in learning language. In my opinion, errors are not nonnative-like uses of language but the failures of making listeners or readers draw on text producers’ assumptions. As long as individuals or speakers can express their ideas successfully and switch the level of formality based on contexts, using social media is even beneficial to their learning as it provides a huge platform for them to practice and expose to their target languages.
Thuy Linh Nguyen
I am of the opinion that social media will not have a potential negative impact on the existence of English language simply because people know what type of language they are writing or reading on these sites. In other words, people know the level of formality they should use in which context and situation. If we consider these social media sites as a place for relaxing after work or a place the current young generation enjoy being engaged in, we perhaps have another positive point of view about the problem. Nowadays, the young generation prefer to spend their time on reading news on these sites rather the original version of news. In this case, the discussions or information exchange are still happened. Furthermore, I believe that language is always moving and new words are created everyday wherever it is used, so there is no standard language according to Piller.
Although there is a high level of informality in social media,I have found that the limited word space also means that I sometimes have to be more analytical in order to express my message within the word space that I have so my messages are much more to the point than they would otherwise be. I also speak Korean and I found that communicating via social media is the least daunting way of writing because spell-check always corrects my words I know that I what I am writing is correct and I have been able to learn and correct a lot of my Korean spelling thanks to social media. My father is from the Netherlands and I also find that the short length of the articles or messages on social media also that I don’t feel overwhelmed by having to read a lot but can just read the Dutch feeds that appear on my facebook in snatches and thus maintain and improve my Dutch. I don’t think that social media has worsened my English, but it has made me more creative and thoughtful in what I write; however it has definitely been a boon in improving my other languages.
The use of social networking sites has undoubtedly had a profound impact on the way in which individuals communicate and interact with each other and especially those of a younger age. Although communication through these mediums undoubtedly is quite informal, I believe that they do not necessarily lead to a backwards step in the English language. Individuals ultimately adapt to the environment in which they are in when needed and the same should be expected for the way in which they communicate and an individual’s English capabilities should therefore not be judged by the way they communicate on SNS. Just as the article describes a young person tweeting should not indicate that they are incapable of writing a formal job application, an individual who dresses very casually on a day to day basis should not be expected to dress the same when going to a professional job interview. That is, of course, unless that particular individual does not understand how to hold themselves in different social circumstances.
We should not boycott Twitter because it is useful for real discussion. Though twitter limited characters in a “tweet”, it is still largely useful and definitely chronological. Teachers could help out other teachers and students by sharing their resources. However, in my opinion, over-using Twitter could affect English language skills due to the fact that our brain is forced to adjust to fit the environment where the language is spoken. For example, one could speak more than 1 language/dialect as they change settings.
It is obvious that social media (SNS such as Twitter) have a great impact on language because it is one of the major forms of communication. To communicate with others using small devices (mobile phones and tablets), people frequently use/send short messages. Due to this, when people write on SNS, they tend to overuse emoticons, abbreviations, acronyms and newly-coined words for faster communication. In order to shorten words or sentences, some people skip punctuation or spaces or omit non-essential parts of sentences. It could create negative language habits which people cannot employ formal literacy skills. However, there are also positive effects. It is true that by interacting with SNS, people have more opportunities to engage with the language and their literacy can improve. Moreover, while interacting, they can enhance their digital and multiliteracy skills using the language as well as linguistic and pragmatic proficiency. By changing the ways to communicate using language, the language could adjust accordingly. This means that the language can be changed in some extent because of the need of the language users.
This article is quite interesting that talks about the influences of new medias in language development. It is generally true that Facebook or twitter create some words. These words may help and change the English language and its rules to some extent.
These social medias have two sides effects. From the good aspect, they cooperate the world and connect the people worldwide. But from the bad side, too much informal words that are produced by them may damage the succeed or developed of a language.
Economic and political pressures in the life of people, made them looking for easy ways to ease their routine life and beneficially spend their time.
Tweeter and Facebook have good and bad effects in our lives. They make a significant connection between people from different cultures and countries around the world as well as an enormous gap in a real face to face communication.
In my opinion, the language which uses in the social media is not a language that can affect the English language. It’s an easy conversation method which let people save more time and be more direct in what they want to say and share.
Twitter being the only social media platform I genuinely like using, I have to answer the question with a clear “no”. As Ingrid Piller mentioned, Twitter as a platform has great potential especially for international students, who can actively use the English language outside their language classroom, whilst connecting with people from all over the world. It cannot be denied that a different jargon applies to online communication, however this does not automatically imply a degradation of the language. Language change and variation have been registered by linguists over many years now and are therefore not phenomena of the 21st century.
This article was really interesting for me. I would like to insist that those SMS such as Twitter or Facebook makes a diversity of language, rather than damping down English. It is because SMS is more likely to be used by young generation who learn technology well and fast. This means that the texts written on Twitter or Facebook must be more informal. The significant character of current society can be said the speed; therefore, transitions of language should be quick because we all human beings live with language. And in any country, it can be probably said that it is always young generation who create new words or produce a trendy word or vocabulary in the society. SMS can be the comfortable place for those people to tweet or chat with their unique communications.
This article is very interesting in the modern society whereby everyone tends to use acronyms, abbreviations, emoticons and even slangs for almost everything in the social media world now. Linking this with the lecture and readings of Week 1, hieroglyphics, cuneiform and the chinese writing were formed semiotically for the people to understand the meaning of the content; akin with the pattern which was used in modern digital social media language. For example, “lol” means laugh out loud, “brb” means be right back and etc. I do not think that the languages in social media would “kill” or disrupt the standard English Language. However, coming from a multicultural background, it really depends on the choice of the English user on how he or she would like to express themselves on what kind of context. If one uses Twitter to express a formal and business content, the language used would be formal without any signs of “social media” language, likewise it proves the same for informal post in twitter and the user would use informal language. Like what Dr. Philler mentioned in the post, “Social media use is relatively irrelevant to the size of a person’s vocabulary”. Living in this modern digital society, I have met and seen lots of people who writes incredible and powerful pieces of work expressing their ideas and they can also be the ones who writes just “lol” in social media posts as well.
Proponents contend that social media has affected the written form of language negatively. This is mainly owing to a lack of punctuation, use of emoticons, short sentences and abbreviated words which leads to a decline in formal writing skills. Nevertheless, research indicates that overall, the use of digital media and blogging encourages some form of writing. This, in some cases, could make writers more conscious of spelling and grammar errors. Furthermore, as social media has become a tool in the hands of the users to become their own authors and editors, the traditional mode of writing for communication and social interaction seems to inhibit creativity, collaboration and the emergence of ‘modern literacy’.
On balance, the written genre differs from the spoken genre to a great extent. Admittedly, it is the social purpose of the use of language- whether spoken or written- that dictates the form. As a consequence, there seems to be little to be concerned about the impact of social media on the English language.
As this article mentions that, the social media like Facebook or Twitter leads to the language which people contact with their friends becomes informal. Actually, language change is a natural trend with the time goes by, even in China we do not use the ancient official language and inland areas just use simplified Chinese instead of the traditional one. Although social media provides more chances for people to use shorter words and abbreviations, it does not mean people do not know how to use formal language in their studies and work, the formal language is not disappearing.
Furthermore, social media promotes people create the new buzzword which is reflecting people’s current life.
When looking at the title of this post as first sight, it made me feel like use of social media for language learning might be problematic in terms of acquisition of proper English language; namely, understanding of English language in a way that used to be adopted by individuals in the past. However, as Professor Piller mention, it is essential to consider purposes of using social media, such as Twitter. There is no need for us to get to comprehend something written in old English via social media since the main aim is to communicate with people around us, which is more likely to result in informal use of language rather than formal usage. Therefore, it is almost impossible for us to judge whether a person writing a post on social media will not be able to adapt their writing style to formal situations. As a result, the statement that social media has a negative impact on the English language should be omitted. Rather, as Professor Piller states, social media has allowed us to get more access to foreign languages regardless of a place where we live. Hence, social media ought to be more employed as a platform for output of what we have learned.
Actually I do not flinch a little as the writer has supposed because this topic has been quite familiar to social communities of which I am a member (just instead of “English” by “language” or “language communication”. Yes, the writer asks with the question in title but has answered with NO argument that I totally agree with despite the fact that it may not completely have the perfect answer to this issue. In my opinion, the advantages that the social media like Twitter or Facebook bring for us much outweigh the disadvantages: General knowledge (literacy) and linguistic competence as well. A lot of these social networks’ applications are unquestionably useful for those who learn a language (spoken or written) and English language in particular. A large number of English learning forums, groups, pages which are created on Twitter and Facebook help people to communicate effectively in English at the moment. However, like being complained by some, these social media also limited the people’s communication to some points.
In a nutshell, it seems to me that English language or languages in general have not been killed by the social networks like Twitter or Facebook, it have been just changing the way people communicate accompanied with the changing of life’s aspects such as technology, culture, education, etc.
Honestly, it is a little hard for me to think about this topic because I don’t like the social network and I don’t use them frequently. I only have Facebook account just to contact with some friends through Messenger and rarely read any posts on Facebook. However, I think switching between the informal and formal language does not affect the way people use language. In my high school, I always noted down or chatted with my friends in the informal language of English and Vietnamese, but it never affected my language study. The human brain can help us switch between two or three languages that we know, therefore switching between the informal and formal language seems not to be a difficult task.
Language always changes and develops. With me, the language on the social network is just a step of development for daily use. I think most people can easily switch from informal and formal language and it is easier than the one uses bilingual languages. In Vietnam, most teenagers use the language called “teen code” for chatting and posting on social media. I also used “teen code” a lot when I was in high school, but it never impacted on my language study.
I have to say it is a very interesting topic, as one of the most prevalent and popular social media, Twitter has attracted lots of users from all over the world including me, every one is supposed to be part of it including their diverse languages. In the meantime, I do not think it is appropriate to consider English as the only official language of Twitter, since diversity is one of the constant themes of the world although English is a very useful tool for us to link the world together as the world communicative medium.
Just as professor Piller said in the text, “Social media use is relatively irrelevant to the size of a person’s vocabulary,” the users in Twitter could be from anywhere in the world, the reason why some of them chose to use shorter words or abbreviation could be due to the differences of their social or cultural background. Besides, as the contemporary world has changed so tremendously rapid, different language posted on Twitter could enrich our vocabularies and broaden our horizon to largely extent. The world is supposed to be varied and changeable rather than fixed and immobile.
This article is very interesting. In my country, Thailand, we are also talking about this topic too. Children now a day, They use lots of slangs and new words which are built by group of people on Social media. I agreed that these habits may cause the problem of using inaccurate words in somehow, since they tend to use abbreviation of the words. They tend to forget how to write these words in the right way (it happened to me many time too.) However, it is kind of hard for some people who are not use English as their mother tongue to switch between formal and informal language. For example, me, I sometimes do not sure about using words on my essay. On the other hand, text and comment on social media I do not have to care much about using formal words.
It is convenient for us to use mobile phones and laptops, which can easily access to the internet/social media and communicate with people from all around the world. It doesn’t matter what is your first or second language, you still can communicate with each other with the use of translation tools. We can learn more vocabulary even the grammar from communications. Just same as in classrooms, it will be more effectively if students are allowed to use digital devices while their studying, of course it should be something linked to the class. For example, teacher is teaching a vocabulary in class, then students can immediately to use the digital dictionary to search the definition and the pronunciation of that word, they also can save or favourite the word in order to review after class. So I think the social media really helps us to learn more through the whole internet.
From my point of view, I do agree that social networks like Twitter or Facebook do not affect negatively English. English is also a language which keeps changing over time. There are more and more new words created because of social media, such as ‘unfriend’, ‘selfie’, or ‘troll’ (as a verb). English acronyms and abbreviations also speed up the conversations between people using cellphones or laptops to type. As long as it well serves its best function, which is communicating, English could not be considered to be degraded due to social networks.
As a former user of Twitter, I think the concern of some people regarding the effect it has on the English Language seems to be a little bit of an over generalisation. While it might be true that there could be a case where a few users may use informal language and lots of abbreviation because of certain reasons such as power relations, efficiency and other circumstances, there should be many cases out there where users may also use a proper English language. Thus, I think, It is only the matter of the users its self.
The way many people interact with each other has changed because of technology. Technological improvement on communication within the social networking sites such as Twitter, YouTube Facebook, and Block can be harmful to individuals, resulting in isolation issues. Especially in the using formal traditional language or more flexible in using grammatical rules in formal writing. Moreover, the new vocabularies are introduced, they are numerous disrespect, impolite, and offensive. Technology has been developing rapidly, thereby influencing our language used and ways of communication with each other. Though it will lead to isolation problems, I consider using the Internet depends on people how they will use technology of information beneficial or waste time.
The emergence of a consequential array of social media networks these days, have resulted in the evolution of the written language, especially within the English language – considering the fact that English is currently the most dominant language on the internet. Various new forms of the language within social media have resulted in a cross-cultural mesh, almost creating a new type of ‘Pidgin’ (a grammatically simplified means of communication allowing the ease of communication between two groups of people who do not speak the same language, commonly employed within situations such as trade).
The rise of the internet has brought about all forms of informal writing, where there is an increase in the flexibility within the rules of writing (grammar, spelling, etc.). The popularity of an alphabet soup of acronyms (‘LOL’, ‘OMG’, ‘TTYL’, etc.), abbreviations, neologism (to ‘Google’, ‘Tweet cred’, ‘404’, to ‘spam’, ‘BFF’,etc.) and truncations (‘selfie’, ‘insta’, ‘k’, etc.) has definitely reduced the need to produce long and complex sentences to get a message, or thought, across. These may (or not) lead to the disintegration of proper word usage, good grammar and flowery prose, and it certainly doesn’t help that we do not actually have someone looking over our shoulders to ensure proper language use with every ‘tweet’, ‘post’, ‘hash tag’ or ‘caption’. But then again, this focuses specifically on informal writing. We cannot really judge or criticize one’s fluency of writing (i.e. abiding by the grammatical rules and all) just from a short tweet or status. We would never know if the same person who produces a gibberish tweet may as well produce an intelligent piece of writing for a university assignment.
Languages are going to be ever-evolving, whether or not we choose to accept and embrace it, or ignore and repel it (although the former would be easier – i.e. keep up with change and move forward. As language evolves, Twitter probably just makes it easier to track what’s happening. lol 😉
Technology has changed rapidly in the past ten years, it changed the way we communicate with each other in our everyday life, social networking sites, such as Twitter, Facebook are easier for us to interact with people and having impact on the English language for the words we use.
I think these sites can make both a positive and negative impact on the language, for example, in Thailand young students struggle in a formal language. However, they can use social media to practice English and improve their vocabulary.
The Internet has been a springboard for all forms of informal writing. It might not be surprising traditional grammar rules are being replaced by something more flexible. From impressive word plays to a whole new form of language, the change is quick and drastic. new words were created by internet such as ‘LOL’ & ‘selfie’. While creating new vocabulary and evolving is something languages have always done, the Internet serves to hasten this process considerably. Another curious aspect is the speed at which new vocabulary is introduced, used, overused, and discarded in the Internet Age. In fact, China blocks Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. but the Chinese language are facing the same situation at the internet age.
It did make me squirm a little, at least initially, I will admit it. What led me to accept it to a greater degree is considering the limitations of the format, the 140 characters and how the limitations of the technology necessitate creativity, the shortening of words and the abbreviations. One need only look at older technologies and how they necessitated code and abbreviations just as twitter does or text messages did.
This is not a new phenomenon, one can view old telegraph operator educational manuals and they were producing sentences that, with all their abbreviations, look remarkably similar to an SMS using ‘rdy’ for ready, ‘u’ for you and ‘ur’ your your: https://imgur.com/a/C16hxYQ (Dodge, 1901) yet none would suggest that these represent the decay of the English language. Similar factors and technological limitations such as trying to surreptitiously SMS requiring that messages be both coded and be able to be typed at a fast rate, and the limited number of characters available, produced a similar form of English. And so it comes back to power and prestige of language, is it because those abbreviations are being used by a particular group in society that they are now disdained, while looking at old telegraph operators code is a curiosity and recognized as a necessity due to time and the limits of the technology, or recognized as being professional shorthand such as the fracture example professor Piller mentioned?
Dodge, G. M. (1901). The Telegraph Instructor. Valparisso, Indianna: Publisher.
Hi everyone,
After reading this article
From my humble point of view, social networking sites did not influence or mitigate English
It is true that there may be some negative effects on users of social communication from people or international students more, whose English language is a second language or a foreign language cannot distinguishe between formal and infomral words.
But if we look at the other hand we can say that social networking sites contributed to the promotion and teaching of English
For example. There are sites to teach English language. This in itself from my point of view helps students or people to practice the English language or even to increase vocabulary.
As we know that in the famous twitter program there is a property when sending any message to not exceed 140 characters. I see through this property that it helps the person to choose the appropriate vocabulary and search for synonyms and less in the number of characters and convey the message in a short sense
In my stance, due to the development of social media. Twitter or Facebook may consider as a drug with a bad effect. If we utilize Twitter or Facebook in the correct way, we are able to read a variety of great news which inspires and boost our motivation to live better as well as we can learn new vocabulary. By contrast, as we know that it is almost used informal language on Twitter or Facebook to exchange the information. It may lead to a negative way to a few people, especially a teenager group has a tendency to use slang word or informal word to write an email to others.
I totally agree with me. I use social media everyday and I have a problem of distinguishing formal and informal words these day. 🙁 Should have turned back to them asap.
Hello,
It is undeniable that the fast pace of online apps and internet could have dramatic transformations on language, but we also have to consider this fact that the language which was applied at the time of Shakespeare and the one used nowadays have their own specific characteristics and specifications with distinctive properties, so the coming new and different languages should not be downgraded as the standards are changeable by time passing in new contexts. The language of media and internet is fast growing and dynamic and needs a kind of literacy. This literacy can be acquired easily (getting literate is not that challenging) and applied in different contexts . My concern is that the language which was used at the time of Shakespeare or later on with specific and clear-cut structures gets easily forgotten and buried throughout the time as it has happened nowadays, since the medium of communication is something different now and people attempt to employ the easiest medium of communication in daily life. However, social media has assisted the learners a lot to communicate the newly learnt language in an authentic atmosphere especially for those who learn the language in a foreign context like my country. Students only have the chance to practice the language in the class atmosphere and would not have any opportunities to operationalise their knowledge in real life situations. At least the social media has been successful in this concern. Once I read in an article that language main building blocks are getting distorted by the time and turning to new styles, but I think that the language is doing its job correctly the same as past times and the main essence of the language is not changed at all.
Thank you
Farzaneh Morovati
Language has changed overtime as we see in examples such as Great Vowel Shift, Creolisation etc’,.Besides , a language being ‘pure’ is an ideological concept where change taking place is inevitable. Social media is a space which opens discussion, gives a voice to the voiceless and thus enables sharing of knowledge. It has adapted English to serve its purpose of reaching a wider community who may or may not have mastered the ‘proper English’. The argument in the article reminds me of the concept of ‘code switching’ which is considered as devaluing the purity of the dominant language. However, for code switching to take place one has to be literate in both the languages . Therefore, for me, it enriches the communication act rather than diminishing its value. Similarly, Twitter, rather than devaluing or degrading the use of English language, widens its reach , empowering its potential users. This should be one of the main goals of a language .
It’s funny how people still refer to Shakespeare’s as the English people should know when numerous words like “amort” and the countless number of ideas, concepts and objects have become irrelevant to today’s world if not anti-something or racist.
It is unquestionable that the social media has given almost everyone the opportunity to express their thoughts regardless of their accuracy and appropriateness, and to share their everyday experiences so habitually to the extent where people have started doing certain things for the sake of sharing it to the world. However, the status of the written word has changed, numerous genres of writing have developed, and the rising statistics of university graduates has given people the ability to be more selective and critical to the sources they choose to read and keep as references (well, I am not sure about the last point).
Moreover, we should not worry that research studies are going to have titles such as “Y is GMO food 🤢💀?” one day because the language of science and research are expanding and becoming more specialised too while new hashtags are spreading on Snapchat.
Furthermore, I would argue that tweeting and chatting can be as creative, beautiful and moving as a Shakespearian sonnet at that time or a political speech in the past.
Dear all,
Based on what we know in general regarding “Literacy,” “Oracy,” and “Language” on the whole, it seems that in old times and ages language was regarded more disciplined and prestigious. According to Professor Ingrid Piller (session 2), “literacy is directly associated with power, wealth, and education.” Despite the fact that we are in 21st century and Post-Post Modern era and technology is not comparable with for instance Anglo-Saxon time or Renaissance, but its seems likely that writing specifically was prestigious at that time for not all could read and write. For instance “Beowulf” written in Anglo-Saxon era (anonymous writer) is associated to Old English and is not readable unless you are expert in that certain language. Also Shakespearean language is considered Middle English and is hard to analyse and understand and that is why pupils in school today have the equivalent of modern English language for it. Thus it seems language is constantly changing and facing different changes over time (due to technology).
Also, language seems to get shorter and shorter in a sense, for instance people nowadays specially teenagers try to use shorter version of the language instead of the formal, justified version (how are u? u wanna come? or tnx or plz).
Regards,
Pegah
From a different perspective, we can see how social media has increased the amount of written language we produce compared to what we did the past. I have observed how older people in my family, who barely had to write anything in their daily life, started to get concerned about their writing as it became the main medium to communicate with friends and other family members.
Although the vast quantity of text produced in social media tries to reflect the way we speak, it stills makes people aware of the importance of not making mistakes that can affect the understandability of their messages.
I think that one of the negatives of social media for language learners is the difficulty of differentiating between formal and informal language. Learners of English will easily pick up the abbreviations and shorthand used in social media, but when required to speak and write more formally they may be more inclined to use the language that comes to them fastest, and with which they are most familiar.
On the other hand, this informal language and use of various images may be helping people to communicate across cultures with less language in common in a way that was never possible before. Short to the point sentences without complex grammar and vocabulary are simpler for language learners to understand. When symbols are used you can communicate across cultures without using any words at all.
As history shows, all languages change and adapt over time, often in response to technological and social changes. The social change being driven by social media is most likely just adding another dynamic to the English language, one which may even improve communication and understanding between cultures.
I would like to start by pointing out that the article answers its title/question in the last paragraph. Indeed, “language change and linguistic diversity are a fundamental fact of life”. That being said, I would also like to remark the importance of the context –even a virtual one- when using the language; and that even though social media has revolutionized the way we communicate, I refute the idea that said platform may be killing English language or any language. As I see it, “the English on Twitter” could be perfectly labeled as a ‘secondary discourse’ (if we dare to institutionalize ‘Social Media’) which may differ from the one we use when writing an essay as a college student or when buying some batteries as a regular person, and that is perfectly understandable. Here the adaptability of the language plays a crucial role which requires users to –of course– adapt but most importantly accept the rules stated by this discourse community.
As humans, we naturally adapt both our spoken and written language to our context. Whilst particularly noticeable on social media, as noted by Kalnins, this phenomenon isn’t unique to the twittersphere. We message friends using slang and relaxed grammar, but email our boss using formal language and correct grammar. Similarly, when catching up with friends, our speech is casual and informal, but when giving a presentation at university, we use a higher register and more specialised vocabulary. This ability to vary our language according to our context does not damage the English language, rather, it enriches and strengthens it.
It is true that many teenagers currently prefer to use social media such as Facebook and Twitter instead of reading Shakespearean texts. However, these students could understand the differences between formal language and informal languages which means advanced social technology does not have a strongly negative effect on students’ literacy development. In addition, many international students are benefited from Twitter and Facebook. This is because the social media has created a flexible communicative atmosphere for the connection between international students and local students. International students can acquire more useful information of the certain culture through Twitter.
As a communication tool to express our idea and feeling, a language is always used and worked contextually. I believe that we all do agree with Professor Piller that said a language is always adapted to the context. This means the use of formal or informal language really depends on the context such as; medium, situation, addressee and the purpose. Hence, the existence of the social media may not ruin any language because the idea of context can help and lead us into the production of proper text and level of formality. However, a language change is inevitable, and this is what makes the use of a language may different from time to time (although it may not occur significantly). I also can relate this to my own language, Bahasa Indonesia, where quite many of old words are no longer exist and used by today’s generation because of the social and cultural change. Besides, there are also some new words that appear and are used to express or describe some new concepts that come along with the advancement of technology itself. Thus, social media like Twitter may have its own role in promote this change but only in a way where its users think they need a simplification to ease them in communicating with others (such as; using abbreviation or technical or new common terms, etc.). Lastly, the language choice and pattern really depend upon the people’s choice as well as the social media users or language speakers and it is the context that always matters in the text production which most people are aware of and literate in.
The innovation of culture has changed a lot in recent years. Language as a part of factors has been influenced by the development of technology. Internet is not totally bad for language learning. As us international students, these applications are the platforms to improve the language ability. For example, we can exchange our ideas with native speakers. Facebook is an open area where we can learn some spoken English from the normal comments. However, Shakespeare English is more dramatic which is used less in the daily life.
With the developing of human society, the form of language is changing. Human should have the ability to adapt the conversion of language expression. For example, we are using modern English but not the English of Shakespeare. Also, a person who is educated will have the capability to use language correctly in a different context. So, the appearance of social media will not entirely kill the English. However, to some extent, it is harmful to the individuals who are still learning English and without the ability to distinguish the formal and informal language if they often use Twitter or Facebook which will have the profoundly impact for their English learning.
This article is interesting as well as thought-provoking. While I was reading this post, I came to reflect my experiences about the users on social media like on Twitter and Facebook. In general, it can be said that there are two types: users using social media for pleasure, and those for getting and/or sharing knowledge. Depending for their purposes, the English language and the style they use can be varied. For example, the users for fun usually tend to use abbreviations and sometimes distorted language. On the other hand, those with important reasons such as academic purposes try to employ good command of English in writing posts and even in giving comments. I myself am a regular user of Facebook, and I am a mixture of those types in that when I want to sound funny or use it for pleasure, I don’t normally take a great care of my language. However, when it is time to be serious, I usually put a great effort to use correct and relevant English, but not to make silly mistakes.
That is why I agree with the opinion of Professor Piller that social media cannot be blamed for the use of English. It is one of the changing trends. In my view, whether people use “proper English” or distorted English depends on the types of the users and their purpose.
I agree with Thet, Social media is not the enemy and neither is the language used for it. It is better to take it as what it is, a social network, and its purposes which are pretty diverse. The language on Social media depends on the users and how they present and represent themselves through its tools. In a platform such as Twitter, there are different skills that users could develop and show in their writing. To be concise and precise when sending a message through is not an easy skill, for some more for having fun than for others, but there is still a number of benetits that could be obtained from this particular tool. I strongly believe that all these latest technological advances have led to an awareness of several discourse communities which emerged and are emerging throughout time. They have left the door open to more opportunities to communicate with, learn from and teach to different generations.
Twitter or Facebook or any other social media give us a sense of words not only as the building blocks of thought but also as a social connector to each other, and this is the purpose of language. The other benefit is that, we can see the person who says and to whom as well as when. By using Twitter, we can also know about the different cultures of different people along with the different languages. Researchers are grouping people by the usage language on Twitter. Because of the word limitations, maybe someone has to use the short terms but it does not indicate that they do not know the formal language but it can be a strong media for language learning.
Looking at the title of this blog at face value, I am of the generation (influenced by my grandmother) that I would agree with such a statement. But the reality of it is not true. Language evolves over time as does forms of communication. Twitter is just one means of expression / announcing information. I would hope that the younger generation distinguishes the differences between what is socially acceptable discourse in contexts. As mentioned in the article “No living person uses English as it was used in the 16th century” this is a true and valid point, language isn’t static as Jas Ng mentioned above. But in saying that, I do believe that international students who are learning English should be taught in terms for formality but also be exposed to and shown language in everyday society.
It is true that language is not static. In other words, language keeps changing and developing across time. Therefore, we can’t insist all people in the modern era to fully understand ancient language when they may not use it in their daily life. As for drama students, I personally believe that if they are truly passionate about their major, it is their own responsibility to delve deeper to detect the differences and learn how to adapt their choice of language appropriately to certain contexts.
I find the arguments in the blog very strong and persuasive. I’m also of the opinion that we can’t blame social media for degrading English as in fact, social media can be seen a powerful tool to help many language learners improve their English. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter are now common channels where international language learners can be connected to share their knowledge and learn from each other. For example, through these sites, we could know how some English terms have different meanings across different cultures and countries in the world. In addition, it is obvious that many professionals are using online communities as open forums/platforms for online discussion and exchange of new knowledge. We can’t say we are only supposed to “teenager’s language”; we ,in contrast, still adopt formal/academic language on these sites. Therefore, I am convinced that English language has been enriched thanks to the increasing popularity of social media.
In this article, one of the most important issues of today’s world has been discussed. The language of social media can not be accused for degrading English Language. In reality, social media is connecting people from different area of the world. They can share their ideas and they can learn different languages and different style. For example, when an American will contact with an Australia through Facebook, they will come to know each others’ culture and their way of using English. Thus language will be more diversified through these social media.
It is true that using SNS like Twitter has nothing to do with their appropriate use of language. Expressing ideas with the limited length of words can improve literacy skills in a simple, but explicit manner. Furthermore, language itself always changes as the situation and the ratio of the age group change, it is highly likely that future generations will not speak as we do. Rather, it is necessary to be exposed to various modes of speech depending on who they talk to because this appropriateness is gained through acquisition not gained innately.
It is obvious that language is keep on changing. Shakespeare’s English is different from today’s. What I speak is different from what my children speak. With the development of technology everything is changed including English language. For an example government in NSW going to replace pen and paper tests (NAPLAN) to electronic paper. Soon children will forget to hold the pen/pencil or hand writing. Therefore, there is no point of criticising posts on social media. We should appreciate at least people are communicating. However, users have to be careful not to spoil a language or misuse.
The debate on whether or not social media brought disadvantages to the learners’ ability to learn the English language has been in circulation even before it has not taken into place when SMS or mobile phones are prominent. Before, SMS was seen as detrimental to the English language learners’ ability to learn the language, especially in terms of grammar and vocabulary because of the use of shortcuts and acronyms. Similarly, when social media such as Facebook and twitter became popular, these SM’s were accused to have contributed to the learners’ decline of English language skills.
In my view, Facebook, twitter, and other SM’s speak the language of its users – the millennials. Because language changes overtime, the kind of language evolves in accordance to the generation.
I found this article very persuasive as I myself also think that it would not make much sense to blame social media such as Facebook and Twitter for spoiling the English language. In contrast, I think these social and technology changes has played a crucial role in connecting people, help them exchange ideas and learn from each other easier than ever. Thus, the language is also diversified, and enriched along with the proliferation of these communicative websites.
As time goes by, no matter which language, it will change constantly. The meaning of words, the structure of sentences and even the meaning of whole texts may have different interpretation in different ages. So, we cannot just blame the websites, such as Twither and Face book.
As English is my second language, to be honest, the emergence of these communicative websites have helped me a lot on the way of learning Englijsh. Apart from this, I think these websites can contribute the popularisation of English as well as the culture of the English speaking country.
The socity relating to Shakespearean texts is totally different from. For most of the drama students, they may need to understand the history in order to understand Shakespearean.
Although for some native speakers, it is easy to switch the formality of writing English, it is really difficult for English learners especially beginning levels for students to distinguish between the formal English and informal language. students who are learning English at school and use Facebook and Twitter out of school can have impacts from the language that people usually use social media and enjoying using them.