Social Media has had an undeniable impact on the way we communicate. We rarely even need to write our thoughts on online social platforms and apps – the emojis and react buttons made available convey our emotions just fine. But when we do write or speak now, do we do so differently due to the social media exposure that we’ve had? Let’s find out.
• We are more concise in our communication – The character limits imposed by websites such as Twitter have ensured that we no longer write sprawling messages to communicate. It may also be the reason why Internet abbreviations have found a life of their own.
• We write for a larger audience – We are conscious of the views that content that we put out on social media get. As a result, we write and speak more discerningly. Social media platforms have provided us access to a larger audience base than we had been used to. Communication today has become more sensitized, on the whole, as a result.
• We use language differently – Social media has changed the way we use a lot of words. Many existing words have acquired new signification apart from all the new words that have come up. For eg: The word “woke”, when used on social media, no longer means “to be awake”. In social media lingo, it means to be socio-enviro-politically aware.