Technological impact on language usage among the youth (How language usage in personal space is slipping over formal space)

- C. Laldinfeli

Social Media have shortened the usage of our sentences and words because of limit of spaces. We try to reflect our thoughts, ideas and opinions with the least number of characters. For instance, Twitter allows us to share views and opinions within the limit of 140 characters which compels us to become more concise and to get our messages to other users with a limited number of letters. Thus the use of abbreviations, acronyms as well as neologisms (newly coined words) become popular and at the same time considered to be fit in our today’s world of technology.

Photo by: William Lalrindika

The youth of today read much of their interests and needs from the screens of computers, tablets and smart phones- articles, current news, tutorials for any field of interests and many others. Written languages for them are not in books alone now. Books are formal forms of writing where there is not a slight printing mistake and always are considered the best references to learn languages as well as the most trusted sources of knowledge and wisdom. But since upgraded technology has renovated learning as well as reading to a whole new level, we cannot stop the youth from reading and learning from the easily accessible internet in the form of easily portable devices.

Especially when it comes to Social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Vine, WhatsApp, etc, the youth dominates the whole users’ population. Using a lot of excessive usage of undecipherable initialisms, incorrect and unofficial abbreviations as well as emoticons, the updates of status, pictures and the sharing of chit chats, opinions, views and even formal requests are going on nonstop.  According to Microsoft Tag, 91 percent of mobile internet access is for social activities and 79 percent on desktops. When the way we socialize is nowadays pretty much through social media, texting and instant messaging become more like spoken language. Spoken language is ‘looser, telegraphic and less reflective’ than written language. A popular linguist John McWhorter states that texting is not really written language but rather a form of spoken language and calls it ‘fingered speech’.

Many people write articles or talk about how social media is ruining the  language while others consider that social media is not corrupting our language, but rather brings a change in how we use language to communicate with each other. Some people also say that social media is not a method of creative writing but rather a very rapid and expedient way of interacting with others. Nevertheless, the words we used over social media tend to be more flexible than formal writing. Since we are being so much absorbed by social media, many of us do not know where, when and how to draw the lines in using such new soup of acronyms, newly coined abbreviations, personal inventive neologisms in our competitive world of reality which seem to look completely acceptable and readable in informal and virtual spaces of social media.

Photo by: William Lalrindika

The distressing part is when it comes to the reality of writing for an important examination, an essay, article or the like. Many students in high schools, higher and even in colleges and universities include those mysterious initialisms and incorrect abbreviations in their writings which are pathetic as well as disgusting. The words that envelop them every day in their informal communication through social media have an immense influence in the words they use when it comes to the formal spaces. K.L.Lallunghnemi, a language teacher in one of the most prestigious high schools in Aizawl states that  while checking the essays in students’ answer papers in Mizo subject, there used to be many unknown and unreadable sentences like ‘Egmh k t lo, k wm my my’  which should be ‘Engmah ka ti lo, ka awm mai mai’ or words like ‘sianpa’, ‘trongtai’, ‘mohphurhna’, ‘m2’ which should be ‘thianpa’, ‘tawngtai’, ‘mawhphurhna’, ‘em em’ respectively. “Also in English paper, instead of ‘friends’ many students write ‘frens’, ‘love’ as ’luv’, ‘that’ as ‘dat’, ‘enough’ as ‘enuf’’’ she added. ‘Being a language teacher for the past 25 years, these kinds of inexplicable initialism of words become popular recently and I blame the excessive use of social media for communication. This causes degradation of grades in their results’ she stated further. This clearly shows that the instantaneous ability to share our thoughts through social media has affected our usage of languages when it concerns the world of reality.

Not only in the areas of academy but in the field of Journalism, had the use of excessive acronyms and unofficial abbreviations created problems many a time? Mr. Lallianzuala Fanai, a journalist working in Vanglaini Daily newspaper in Aizawl states that many departments in Aizawl use excessive abbreviations or acronyms for certain technical or medical terms in relating to  press statements or annual reports of their departments which the journalists find them hard to know the meaning and cause delay in their works. Could writing in the most simplified or laziest forms even when it comes to official works another cause of effects of social media? Regarding this, Dr.K.L. Biakchungnunga, a teacher in Baptist Higher Secondary School, Lunglei tells us his opinion. ‘Obviously, social media leads to laziness. Instead of typing ‘Happy Birthday’ to wish our friend, many users write ‘HBD’. We take every word for granted that it will be understood and accepted but in doing so, words lost their power to touch, influence or guide someone’. These short unofficial abbreviations are then used widely and unnoticeably in the formal spaces.Words that are originated from the social media are slipping into our world of reality and many a time, we fail to realize the fact of its seriousness.

Conversely, Social media makes it easier than ever to add to the development of language.  Also it brings about a lot of new words in the Oxford dictionary like for example ‘selfie’.  ‘Friend’, ‘Status’, ‘Profile’ in the old dictionary need to add secondary meanings to these terms which are popular in the world of social media. Nowadays, a ‘troll’ does not only mean a character from Norse folklore but someone who makes unpleasant and insulting comments online.

Emoticons are more than enough to state the anticipated attitude without essentially having to write down. The acronym like LOL (Laughing out loud) and OMG (Oh My God) describe our physical actions and the commonly used ‘TTYL’ (Talk to you later) reduces the need to write much longer phrase and reduces space. ‘Google it’, ‘WhatsApp me the photos’ or ‘I’ll facebook you’ become commonly used sentences nowadays. As the word ‘informality’ suggested, we can add many useful and newly inventive words to make our sentences alive, personal and physical. At the same time, if it is to save money, space or time or if it is thought to use as such a language is cool, fun and updated, it is not a crime or forbidden act as far as social media is concerned. 

However, as long as the real world admire and respect people with good grades in their subjects, think highly of poets, novelists, essayists provided that people still continue learning the books of Shakespeare, the youth who do not know where and when to draw the lines in using the languages of social media and the so called unfathomable words, incorrect acronyms and inventive neologisms, there is no chance of being accepted for various academic challenges in the world of reality.