Media greatly impacts language. The media that people use on a daily basis influence the language those people use. From literature to social media, the language present on those interfaces present a myriad of language variations. These interfaces not only present language variation for public consumption, but the most popular ones even change the language that people use.
Social Media specifically, allows us to connect with people all over the world in a matter of seconds. In this transition from physical communication to virtual communication, the popularity if 'txt talk' has grown. This type of language became very popular with the use of instant and text messaging. Additionally, this language use has given way to a number of new acronyms in order to reduce phrases and space. Examples of these newer acronyms include 'LOL, OMG and TTYL" which break down to laughing out loud, oh my god, and talk to you later.
This transition from words to abbreviations have even begun to influence that way that people speak. Blogger Will from English Live writes, a " whole host of words originating from social media and the wider Internet have become so commonplace that they’ve now slipped into popular usage, and we don’t even realize it" (HAS SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGED THE WAY WE SPEAK AND WRITE ENGLISH?)
Even more so, the hashtag has taken over. All over social media, users are integrating hashtags into their posts. This practice has become so common that it is even becoming present in spoken communication as well. The hastag has transition in meaning from being used as the number symbol or the pound sign, to becoming the symbol to tags that link. Alexis C. Madrigal from the Atlantic, write about a specific hashtag words that has become really common recently. The word '#blashtag' has been used to describe when people use the promotional hastag of a franchise as a negative commentary tool about that franchise. The example Madrigal gives in the article is about McDonald's and how users are taking the company's hashtage, "McDStories' and using it against the company.
Furthermore, the use of social media has lead to even more new words. Words such as 'friend, like, status, wall, page, and profile" have changed in meaning due to the popularity of social media as explained in John Reeds Post on Oxford Dictionary's Blog: How social media is changing language. The meanings of words have changed over time to accommodate for the functions of social media and the effects are more than present. Also, many new words or neologisms have been created as well to describe the new social phenomenons that were nameless. The word blog itself is a word that has been created to suit a purpose for social media. Another example would include the infamous terns of selfie.
Social media has taken the forefront in impacting language. All medias have impacted language and many words have been created due to media. As society continues to progress, words are going to have to change their meaning or new one are going to need to be created in order to accommodate for the changing set of task that has become today's social media.
