IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON LANGUAGE CHANGE: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine, from a sociolinguistic point of view, how social media affects language change. In today's digital age, social media apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, and X have drastically changed how individuals communicate, allowing them to communicate instantly, worldwide, and in a multimodal way. The study investigates how these platforms facilitate the emergence of new words as well as grammatical and spelling shifts, and the growing presence of emojis, GIFs and mixed language forms. The study follows a qualitative descriptive research approach in the analysis of the secondary data taken from academic literature and real world examples of online communication. The results indicate that social media is a driver of fast spread of neologisms, slang, abbreviations and code switching, especially among the younger generations of social media users. Based on the above theories, the study aims to explore the process of spreading of linguistic changes in digital setting and its theoretical implications. The study finds that SMD does not affect the quality of language, but rather brings flexibility, creativity and multimodality of communication. It also poses questions about the standardization of language and formal writing skills, however. In general, social media is recognized as a potent agent of linguistic development in today's digital era.