Social media has revolutionized our lives. It has impacted our learning experiences as well, including the English language. You will notice that people communicate in a very informal way on social media. Social media platforms encourage using a conversational tone.

Globalization of English

Social media has allowed people of different cultures to communicate in English. So, English has become the most common and popular language around the world. Most of the content on social media is in English.

Vocabulary

Social media has given rise to new terms like 'trending', viral', 'selfie', etc. Image-based communication is now popular due to the social media platforms Instagram and Snapchat. 'Craptacular' or 'Amazeballs' compound words are introduced. Vocabulary appropriation is also prominent in social media. A word with a particular meaning is given another meaning in the social media. For example, 'wall' normally means 'boundary of a house'; but in social media 'wall' refers to your homepage on your social media profile. Formation of blended words using names of two people is also very common today; for example, 'Brangelina' is formed from 'Brad' and 'Angelina'. You will come across acronyms like 'DM' (direct message), 'FOMO' (Fear of Missing Out), 'TBT' (Throwback Thursday), LOL (laugh out loud), OMG (Oh my God), TTYL (talk to you later), and more. Here are some new words that have been added to the dictionary; it is presumed that these words have originated in social media platforms. These include:

* air punch (an act of thrusting one's clenched fist up into the air, typically as a gesture of triumph) * bro hug (man hug) * baller (impressive) * amazeballs (amazing) * YOLO (you only live once) * spit take (an act of suddenly spitting out liquid one is drinking in response to something funny or surprising) * binge watch (watch multiple episodes of something like a TV program in one sitting) * live tweet (post comments about 'an event' on Twitter while the actual event is taking place) * tech-savvy (proficient in the use of modern technology)

Emojis and emoticons

These are linguistic tools that have made communication simple and short. These tools are used to express emotions in the shortest and most effective way. For example, if you like someone's profile picture on Facebook, send a 'thumbs up' emoji. It tells that you like the photo. You are connected to a lot of people on social media from different cultures. You can easily communicate with them using a common language like emojis. These save time as they are short ways of expressing thoughts. It lowers the ambiguity in language as symbols have only one meaning.

The best way of learning something is by practicing it daily. Without emojis, the younger generation would have to type longer sentences to express feelings they could have easily summarised using an emoji. This way, they would gain experience using more words in their vocabulary, thus improving their language skills.

Using emojis has disadvantages as well. People now use fewer words in conversations than before. So, their vocabulary is not improving. They will have trouble writing or communicating formally as they no longer practice such content.

Hashtags are used to categorize content. They are a form of social commentary. Hashtags represent how powerful social media is in driving social change.

Educational implications

The educators are including social media elements in their teaching approaches. They are accepting informal language, emojis, etc. Some challenges are also present due to social media in this regard. Informal languages can be confusing. The learners are deprived of learning formal English.

We have to be responsible for the use of language ethically on the social media platform. Issues like hate speech, cyberbullying, and misinformation are very prominent here. You must understand that the words you use on social media can have a huge impact on a person's emotions. You have to show respect to others and promote positive content. Don't make social media an unhealthy environment of communication. You can turn social media into a playground for creating new words and experimenting with various good thoughts to contribute positively to society. It's a great medium for expressing your thoughts without worrying too much about syntax and grammar.