Social media's growing effect on language today
Written by Ramadhany Jalil
January 23, 2024A group of friends are conversing at the lunch table in the cafeteria. While they are talking they use terms like “You’re cooked” and “W rizz!”. These phrases weren’t commonly used just a decade ago—in fact, they didn’t even exist in the context they’re used in today. But due to social media’s rise in popularity, and apps like TikTok or Instagram, they’ve become commonplace among youth today.
U.S. Average Adolescent Screen Time, by Subgroup
According to this graph conducted by Gallup, teens tend spend on average 4.8 hours a day on social media, with 51% of them spending at least 4 hours per day on it. With this amount of use of social media it is likely to influence teenagers in many different ways, including language.
Much of the new slang used today is quickly spread around thanks to social media being so accessible and easy to share. This slang that gets spread through social media eventually reaches the real world as people start saying it. Navish Saroop, an 11th grader at George W. Carver HS E&S talks about how social media slang has been incorporated in our daily lives.
“It kinda just integrates itself in your in your like everyday life. So you really can't tell. It's just normal," Saroop said.
Andres Alarcon, a freshman at George W. Carver HS E&S has seen more than just its influence here in the US. He explains how truly widespread some of these phrases have gotten.
“I think social media has influenced language heavily in all parts of the world," Alarcon said. "You can see people from different countries using different slangs different words. And they're usually all influenced by the internet and social media.”
Alarcon himself has been influenced by social media.
“I guess we're all influenced you know by the stuff we see on social media and a lot of that is like texting, text people," Alarcon said. "So I think I've picked up like, a lot of lingos and stuff off of social media. So yeah, my language has been pretty influenced.”
However, some people aren't as influenced by social media directly. Instead, they'll get some lingo from their friends. Andrew Melendez, another 11th grader at George W. Carver HS E&S explains how even though it doesn't affect you directly, your friends can still show you slang from social media.
"I don't really pick up anything from social media," Melendez said. "I may have get words from my friends that they get from social media."
With social media only continuing to grow, as in 2022, over 4.59 billion people were using social media worldwide, a number projected to increase to almost six billion in 2027, our language is going to be more and more affected. This is likely to bring conflicting opinions on whether this is a postive or negative thing. Ramlah Hagos, a junior at George W. Carver HS E&S voices her view.
“I think it's a bad thing," Hagos said. "Like people need to like parents need to monitor their kids, especially in these young ages where their mind is really being developed.”
Not everyone sees it like this though. Saroop has a more indifferent view of social media's influence.
“It could be a good and a bad thing," Saroop said. "Social media can be positive and negative depending on how it's used. So it just depends. I just think that it depends on how it's used.”
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