IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA LANGUAGE ON ACADEMIC WRITING: A STUDY OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

A qualitative research method was used to examine how social media types the way students write in a university. Using social media platforms (Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter), most university students frequently engage with informal language such as; abbreviated words, emoji's, slang, and shortened forms or expressions. The study also sought to identify the extent to which these aspects of language affect how university students write academically. Through semi-structured interviews with five university students, the results indicated that students experienced grammatical errors, misspelling of words, punctuation errors, incorrect sentence structure, and use of informal style in their written work as a result of excessive exposure to social media language. On the contrary, an additional number of participants indicated that the use of social media language positively contributed towards improving the speed and creativity of their written work. Overall, although the language used on social media is now a normal part of students' communication with one another, it can negatively impact their formal academic writing through the unintentional use of social media language. The researchers recommend that universities have an increased awareness of academic writing and find a balance between creating digital communications and using formal language in writing.