The social media have both positive and negative impact to communication among individuals or society, in general (Lamy, Mangenot and Zourou; Monaco; Thorne). It has affected almost all aspects of life, especially, of the school learners. While in front of their computers, there are students who interact with other netizens using another language, which is second nature to them. As a result, they learn new words and then their vocabularies are increased. However, there may be many times when they just express themselves in every way they can so long they are somewhat understandable. Still, there are situations when they have to use some words they are not really familiar with. Hence, the problems with the online social networking sites could either spell, directly or indirectly, good or bad influence on students’ learning.
According to Monaco, social media have positive impact on communication . In the next few years, there will be more people speaking English in countries that are non-speakers. Today, the social media such as Facebook and other blogs serve as a place where new words are posted. Prior to these social technologies, when television, print, and radio served as the only mass communication, such evolution of words and abbreviations, and the way they are used took a long time. The advent of social technology has made it easier for people to learn new forms of communication and enhance their communication skills. Social media can have a positive impact on communication by expanding vocabularies and enhancing cultural exchange .
Further, with social media, young people who are most to be of the same age use it to share information . When they view advertisements written in impressive forms, they know how eye-catching and humorous some are because words are used in new ways, which makes “language to grow” . As more and more people from different geographical locations keep on using the social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), there is always a possibility that the original language and its meaning may evolve for a specific group and/or setting – for good. The change in the way language is used will thus change over time to serve the interests of those who use it for their advantages.
Although people have adapted social media incredibly well, there appear issues concerning the quality of language use. According to Leslie Savan, social media such as Facebook affect the way people from different geographic regions communicate to each other . Even though social media provide a platform where people from different locations and language adopt a convenient means of communication, its informal use could encourage the careless use of a word based on context or original usage. For example, advertisers in the social media may use languages that are not grammatically correct just to make them appeal to a specific group of readers . Consequently, people will simply pick words they find interesting in advertisements and use them in their daily life without taking into account relevant matters related to correct spelling, usage, etc.
In line with the latter paragraph, Twitter, which is a popular social network, enables its users to send text messages containing a maximum of 140 characters. This restriction, however, produces undue changes on the social dynamics of communication, as it limits the user to pass information in not more than 140 characters as different to normal conversation. The restriction drives the user to abbreviate or misspell words to deliver the message. More than 500 million users around the world are developing the habit of abbreviating and misspelling word in their life. These negative impacts of social media will only increase grammatical mistakes among students because they spend most of their time communicating using abbreviations and misspellings . However, there is no definite solution to this problems because social media are convenient and easy ways of informally informing friends and the public about one’s opinion, feelings, and so on.
As gleaned above regarding the positive and negative impacts of social media, nonetheless, the benefits derived from them are much greater than their disadvantages. Because social media are faster and more convenient ways of communicating and interacting among people across the world, there is a much greater likelihood that students learn more from others through productive collaboration and positive engagement. Since geographical boundaries are never an issue in social media, people simply use “languages they may end up applying” in their everyday lives . Even when interaction in “social media are not always formal” where the use of some abbreviation are without sense to some, if not most people, and the sentence constructions are ridden with grammatical errors , the internet remains the largest repository of information, which somehow mitigates the negative effects of social media in terms of language usage. Despite of that, since social media will remain part of our everyday lives, people ought to take responsibility for their actions because the world we live becomes smaller each day. Thus, whether social media have positive or negative impact on peoples’ lives, everyone or anyone should make it a point that they are members of a global community with something worthwhile to share and in store for themselves, others, and generations to come.
Works Cited
Kevelson, Roberta. The Inverted Pyramid: An Introduction to a Semiotics of Media Language. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2007. Print.
Lamy, Marie-Noëlle, François Mangenot and Katerina Zourou. Key issues and recommendations for the development of language resources for language learning by the use of social media. n.d. Web. 13 May 2013. <http://www.elearningeuropa.info/en/debates/language-learning-social-media-and-development-language-resources>.
Monaco, James. How to Read a Film: The World of Movies, Media, and Multimedia : Language, History and Theory. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.
Savan, Leslie. Slam Dunks and No-Brainers: Language in Your Life, the Media, Business, Politics, And, Like, Whatever. New York: Knopf, 2005. Print.
Thorne, Steven. "Community', semiotic flows, and mediated contribution to activity." Language Teaching 42.1 (2009): 81–94. Web.
