Reflection #7 - CMC: How social media is changing language use

“I like the sound of you not talking.”

So the other day we were having a discussion on CMC – Computer-mediated Communication. When the class ended, I was asked to go home and reflect on it, and instead of dwelling on how these gadgets actually create a bridge between users instead of connecting them, I’d like to focus on how these platforms change the language we use.
From unfriend to selfie, social media is clearly having an impact on language. I’m aware of not only how fast these online platforms change, but also of how they influence the language in which I write.

The words that we use are undeniably affected by the words that surround us every day. It’s a fact. Notice how if you hang out with someone for far too long and you unconsciously pick up some of their frequently used vocabularies? This is the same case. We spend a lot of our time daily reading words from computers, smartphones to the point that language now evolves partly through our interaction with technology. We generally use informal writing to communicate with other users and the fact that most of the people communicate this way is a starting point for rapid language change. Language is nothing if it is not used.

Social media is really making its presence felt with the introduction of new words and new meanings for old words. Social media is making it easier than ever to contribute to the evolution of language. You no longer have to be published through traditional avenues to bring word trends to the attention of the masses. I mean, look at Miley Cyrus, she basically invented the word twerking and at one point it became so overused it's deafening. And Beyonce fans can take pride in making the word slay famous. Now you read the comment section on a singer's video and you'd see SLAAAYYYY everywhere. Slay used to mean literally to kill a person in a murderous way, but now in this computer-mediated era, slay means something else. Slay, now, means "succeeded".
Not entirely surprising, Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year for 2015 is...

Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year (2015) 

That's right. With this, we should expect more new words (or it doesn't necessarily be a word at all) to emerge as a result of the way people use language to communicate using computers in social media.


Reference: Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year