The Influence of Social Media on Modern English

English is an unfixed language. It grows and changes with time. Earlier, newspapers, books, and television influenced how people spoke and arranged their language. But social media has now taken that position. If online platforms majorly decide how English is used daily. New words are being coined on the Internet; dictionaries have been updated to acknowledge different meanings of existing words, whereas emojis have become a popular way of communication.

For students, this makes English fun yet confusing. They enjoy how social media fosters creativity, but they also have to write essays and letters. Also, continues with formal language to business reports and school paper styles. Hence, so many students seek English assignment help on how to apply formal English while having fun with the new language style they see online.

Discuss the Impact of Social Media on Modern English

Social media's lingo has made English more conversation-based, quick, and expressive. Long and flowing sentences are not in fashion anymore. Thus, a person opts for truncated spellings, hashtags, and emojis; occasionally, even memes. An emoji can capture the entirety of an expression, while catchy hashtags encapsulate the whole theme of a post. Quickly chatting away sounds great. However, social media language poses a problem when writing assignments for school, where one has to adhere to a set of rules.

Rise of Internet Slang

Taken as an old phenomenon, slang has now been rejuvenated by social media networks. Before finally making their way into common parlance. It includes word like selfie, meme, vibe, and troll were thrown around on the internet. In fact, they are so popular with the teenagers who find them funny and fresh. "That vibe was great" could be used instead of saying "That party was very enjoyable." While the usage of slang opens up more room for entertaining conversations. It often risks confusing laypersons who may not be conversant with a particular piece of slang. Moreover, it mainly includes teachers or those assigned to grade formal assignments.

Abbreviations in Everyday Use

Speedy typing is everything in online chatting. They save time and are easy to type. The dark side comes when students start using such abbreviations in essays or exams: "LOL, that was funny" may be fine on different apps, but horribly wrong in formal writing. A grammar and vocabulary manual would be the last thing students would be expected to consult in their writing assignments.

Emoji as a Language Tool

This entry witnesses emojis as the little pictures that carry strong meanings. A smile means happiness, the fire emoji designates excitement, and the crying one stands for sorrow. Sometimes a single emoji substitutes against a word, while at other times, it might stand for an entire sentence. For instance, instead of insulting the poor souls with sentences, some students just send the clapping-hands emoji. This saves time, but it also cuts down on the time to practice writing full sentences. After some time, this would just make it harder for students to express themselves clearly in words.

Shifts in Punctuation Style

Punctuation marks are evolving, and it is happening especially in the cyber world. Most young people hate using full stops (.) at sentence ends. The reason is that some would say that it looks “too strict” or "too serious”. Such styles work on various apps for making a story. But punish students if they carry such habits into formal essays by way of grammatical marks.

Mixing of Formal and Informal English

For all practical purposes, the line between informal and formal language in English, at least in American English, has become blurred. On one side, students write casually on social media. On the other hand, they are expected to write formally in school. For instance, a student might use “u” instead of “you” in their homework from so much texting. Thus, it becomes important for the students to learn the usage of both.

Expression through Memes

The Internet has become one of the most popular media for memes. Fun pictures or videos with funny short captions are what one normally expects from memes. A single meme might be able to describe a situation better than a paragraph. For instance, instead of writing "This situation is confusing," a student would just send a meme with a cartoon character looking confused. While memes are creative, they usually promote quick, short-term thinking as opposed to the kind of longer writing expected at school.

Hashtags Giving Rise to New Meanings

In the first place, hashtags brought posts together for grouping. But, ironically, they went on and gave new meanings to common words. #NoFilter means that the photo is natural, literally without any edits. Such hashtags have penetrated day-to-day language in such a manner that students might actually utter 'This is such a #NoFilter moment' even when speaking face to face. It is an instance of online trends affecting spoken English.

Influence of Socio-Technical Influencers

Such influencers widely give social resonance and unfurl trends in fashion, lifestyle, and language for the masses, while another new word said by an influencer will be repeated by millions. For instance, a famous YouTuber may say "Let's gooo!" to express excitement, and suddenly everyone is saying it. It is one of many examples that show how the spread of new words through influencers is much faster than through books or teachers.

Some Academic Difficulties for Students

That is so exciting, but they are simultaneously causing problems for schools. Students sometimes use slang, emojis, or even short forms in their assignments. The students need correct guidance and some helpful tools that are going to fix their problem. For example, with such a free Harvard referencing generator, students can cite in formal style any online sources, such as blogs and tweets. It will ensure an image of a professionally presented wall that is rightly written down.

Conclusion

Language evolves very quickly, and it is primarily because of social media. Instead of saying, "The party was very enjoyable," one should say: "That vibe was great." It is a great time for fun!!! But, at the same time, this poses a big problem for the students. In many cases, students begin to incorporate elements of this colloquial style in their academic work instead of academic English. However, if you need any work on this, you can seek English assignment help from experts.

Academic writing is quite the opposite; it needs to be grammatically correct and to use the right words, serious and objective in style. The best way is to keep a balance. Let the students enjoy the language of social media with their friends and learn to write standard language in school. They can do both with a bit of teacher guidance and practice. This way, they will delight in their creativity but will be able to write good English too.

Also Read - How Can Students Increase Their Creative Skills Using AI?