The Impact of Acronyms Use in Facebook on Language

With new forms of communication such as texting, cell phones bring about a whole new language. Acronyms have become very popular because they shorten the amount you have to type. But is this interfering with proper grammar learning? Many people even misspell words on purpose so the text isn’t as long, and you can say more. But if this is something people do on a daily basis, what’s to say they aren’t going to start using those misspelled words on memos at work, or papers for school. Not to mention distract people during work or school. Which brings me to the next effect.

The Purpose of this article is to inform social media users of the types of media use that are frowned upon by other social media friends by entertaining readers with humorous anecdotes from personal, negative facebook experiences, with hopes to persuade users to avoid these facebook fails. The audience that the author is focusing on in the article is  facebook users. The author uses a topical pattern of organization in the article. The main subject was about facebook users and he broke down the different types of facebook users into

Over the year’s technology has evolved drastically. Technology that involves social media play a huge role in the way people interacts with one another especially when it comes to grammar. Most people communicate using their computers, mobile device or tablets. As technology is changing so has the language. Social media is one of the main forms of communicating with people. Sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Youtube are major social media outlets that are used daily to communicate with individuals near or far. It has formed language using mainly acronyms and emojis (pictures). Emojis has become popular in the past few

In the modern and technological society which we live in today social media plays an integral part in everyday life. Social media is an online tool which allows people to communicate, share data and form groups with others sharing common interests. On social media platforms users can forms virtual communities or networks exchanging information. (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). Social media has become such a big part of life that the term ‘Facebook addict’ has been introduced into the urban dictionary.

Language is the most powerful tool when it comes to communication and establishing relations. The choice of words that a person decides would mostly likely determine the nature of relationship with the particular person being addressed. In most cases, people of the same age group or level have a common language they would ascribe to. With the advent of technology and the presence of many social networking sites, language is slowly changing to meet the demands and trends in the various social media platforms. Most words are now being shortened or other terminologies that are considered stylish or trendy being introduced. This is mostly common with the youths or the younger generation.

Although there is much criticism directed towards millennials and younger generations when it comes to texting, Crystals makes it clear that text-like abbreviations have been used in English for centuries. Acronyms such as LOL, LOML, BRB (laugh out loud, love of my life, be right back) can be dated back to 1618 at the introduction of the term IOU in place of “I owe you”. The history of abbreviations can be dated back to Anglo- Saxon tribes. Humphrys argument poses that texting poses a threat to literacy in our society, Crystal refutes this by giving examples of how word alterations and abbreviations similar to that of texting have been used for centuries by those with an adequate understanding of language for sake of brevity and creativity.

Facebook is a social networking site that is free of charge for its users. It allows the individual the opportunity to stay connected with friends and family, sharing updates, photographs and user status. The company grosses more than $1 billion per quarter in advertising revenue and online games (Ritholtz, 2014). In this respect, Facebook is much more that a social network. It is a versatile and sophisticated corporation that has revolutionized the way people share their lives and communicate. Their mission is “to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the

Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe identify that social networking sites are among the main use of internet today. According to the authors, social networking sites are among the social media platforms that facilitate interaction in the computer environment. The writers identify the main motives for using social networking sites, for example, Facebook. One of the benefits is that Facebook improves the quality of life both social and at workplaces. According to the writers, social media has become common in the society that a majority cannot remember previous life without them. Social networking sites have become popular among college students who find it as a major platform for social interaction.

The rapid growth of technology in our society has become more dominant than it was in the 17th and 18th century. Today, technology is used for almost everything in our day to day lives. But the most common usage of technology is for communication and industrialization. However, every good thing has its disadvantage if it is over used, and since technology has become very dominant, it is used by both young and older people but more predominant among the youth of the today. Even more, technology has brought about social networking such as Facebook, Twitter, my space, piazza.com, instagram, tango, and last but not the least texting. According to socialnetworking.procon.org, “47% of American adults used social networking sites like

The purpose or hypothesis of this study addresses the anatomy of the Facebook network, communication behaviors and network composition, private messages and public communication, and the psychological implications of Facebook use.

In this day and age, social media has become an integral part of our lives. It has created a platform for people to share information instantly and communicate with people all around the world. Facebook is the most outstanding example of successful social media network. According to the first quarter 2015 earnings announcement by Facebook, the site has achieved 1.44 billion active users per month, and 65% of which are daily active users. Other social networking sites such as Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are also a powerful means of communication. With such a large audience, social networking sites provide ample opportunities to acquire information, network, and connect with friends.

Since the release of the first Smartphone in 1993 it has become a lot easier for people to avoid the spelling mistakes with auto correct and even access to the Internet to check spellings. One would assume that this would mean that fewer abbreviations were used and yet more and more are being created each day, and why is this? Simply because it is much more efficient and faster to send an abbreviated word in a text than a full length one. Abbreviations also allow the

At any given time of day, anyone can access an abundant amount of information at the click of a button. Men, women, kids, teenagers, adults and even the elderly are learning how to use the internet to their advantage. Among all the benefits the internet has provided to us, online communication has proven to be the most beneficial. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have made it easy for everyone to stay in contact with each other. Regardless of how far apart a family member or friend is, everyone is just one click away. If someone is not having a good day, they can share their feelings with everyone in a matter of seconds. These social networking sites have become quite popular among adolescents. They allow teens to stay more connected with their friends outside of school. Now teens have become more obsessed with their friends Facebook or Twitter status than engaging in outdoor activities like football or

Facebook, a social networking website, has changed the way people communicate with each other. A social networking website is an online platform that allows users to create a public profile and interact with other users on the website. Facebook has even changed our most personal and private conversations and how they are conducted around the world. Since the internet’s birth in 1983, this trend of online communication has been growing. Created in 2004, now registered with more than one billion participants, Facebook’s user numbers surpass even the top four social networking websites combined. According to Wikipedia statistics, Instagram has 300 million registered users, LinkedIn has 200 million users, Classmates.com has 50 million users, and Flickr has 32 million registered users. To be further convinced of the claim that Facebook indeed changes the way we communicate, you would only need to create your own Facebook account and start participating in their social networking experience. Technology and internet usage is fused into every aspect of our society including the style of communication. The launch of Facebook in 2006 also enabled other devices such as touch phones, interactive tablets, and even advanced cars with their own networking capabilities starting in 2007. Facebook is a multibillion-dollar company and is highly recognized for connecting more people than other networks. Facebook’s long-term success can be attributed to providing entertainment, world news, and

Tweeters and texters try to refine sentences into a few characters, and this results in excessive use of abbreviations which makes it inevitable to miss some important information. Using initials of a word or totally different characters to form a shorthand acronym is unreliable and confusing. David Crystal wrote in his article that “No texter is entirely consistent and no two texters use identical conventions” (245). Someone who text CYA (see you) in a text message will most likely pronounce it the same way as his text, making it an unclear and unpleasant phrase for the listener. Critics say abbreviations save us time, and there is no connection between how we tweet and how we speak. I have been in many situations where I have to search for the meaning of an abbreviation in a text message. An abbreviation doesn’t necessarily save you time. To the contrary, the ambiguous nature of an abbreviation