How Facebook
has changed English
What
are your feelings about social media?
How
does social media affect your life?
Social media has transformed the way we talk with each other. For example telling
others about our thoughts, planning a fun night out, or showing our photos. For
these, most people use social media. Has this interaction changed the way we speak
and write English?
Speed
Social media has meant we can communicate
with a large number of people. And we can do this in a way that was only
possible in our local circles in our own country before. Now we can keep friendships simultaneously over long distances.
The result? We must now communicate in a concise way.
For example: LOL! OMG! TTYL!
The use of acronyms (acronyms are letters that replace a short sentence) are now common replacements
for whole sentences. LOL (laugh out loud),
OMG (Oh my God), TTYL (talk to you later) are just a few that demonstrate how social media speeds
things up.
Emoticons (keyboard facial expression such as a smile or frown. Examples are:( and
:) ) are used to convey what the user is feeling without having to write it. Some
may say this is lazy writing. But social media isn’t about creative writing. It
is a fast and easy way of communicating with others.
How has this changed our world?
Language is always changing. It’s naive to think that social media isn’t changing
the way we use English in day-to-day life.
Many words from social media and the Internet
have become so common that they’ve now become used in everyday talk. Here are a
few words that have come from technology: blogosphere (where people write their stories online), troll (a negative person who goes around writing
unkind things on social media and comments pages etc.) and buzzword (a popular word or phrase). Even some
acronyms have become popular in everyday speaking, ‘lol’ for example.
Another phenomenon we’ve seen is the new use of common words.
‘Friended’ and ‘unfriended’ are two
examples of words that have been given a new meaning due to their usage online.
The word ‘friend’ and ‘befriend’ is from Old English from the 13th Century. But
now it has a new use (the process of
adding or removing someone from your circle of friends). ‘Like’ and ‘viral’
are other popular examples of words that have had their meaning changed by
social media.
There are even examples of online brands
becoming so powerful that these words are now in the English dictionary. ‘Google’
is the world’s most famous search engine. Now we say, ‘Google it’
Just think, 15 years ago, if someone you’d
just met asked you to “be their friend” or “Instagram” a photo of their lunch you
might have thought they were crazy.
Try
to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest
meaning from the choices in the right. Some of the answers are very close and
have similar meaning. The meaning of these words is how they are used in the
reading. Some of these words have different meanings in the dictionary
depending on how they are used.
The
answers are below the table.
transformed
|
A
|
1
|
Communication between things/people
|
interaction
|
B
|
2
|
Exact. A lot of information reduced to a
small amount that is easy to understand
|
simultaneously
|
C
|
3
|
An unusual/strange event.
|
concise
|
D
|
4
|
To communicate a message
|
demonstrate
|
E
|
5
|
To completely/totally change something
|
convey
|
F
|
6
|
Simple, foolish, too trusting
|
naive
|
G
|
7
|
To show, an example
|
phenomenon
|
H
|
8
|
Two or more things happening at the same time
|
A=5, B=1, C=8, D=2, E=7, F=4, G=6, H=3
Some example sentences using the new words or phrases from the
meaning of how they are used in the reading to help you understand better.
The plastic surgery has transformed her appearance.
During the next week there will
be a lot of interaction between
seniors and freshmen.
The World Cup final will be simultaneously shown in television and
the Internet.
If you write too much it is
confusing. Make your writing concise.
Today in my presentation I will
demonstrate how to get a good score.
We wish to convey a message that we are sad to hear that your father died.
He seems nice but don’t be naïve. He might have a hidden plan.
Korean singer Psy is a phenomenon.
Some questions using the new words/phrases. Try to use the
words/phrases in your answer.
How has social media transformed your language? How do you
feel about the transformation (if
you think it has transformed)?
Do you enjoy interacting on social media? What do
you like to do?
Do you think that we can have
too many simultaneous relationships?
How do you feel about concise forms of communication such as
LOL?
Do you think demonstrating your feelings and
thoughts on social media is good?
If you love someone what is the
best way to convey your message?
In what ways have you been naïve in the past?
In your lifetime what phenomenal events have you heard of or
seen?