Tongue Twisting Social Media On Digital Slang.
The concepts of Social Networking ideas have entered deep into our lives to an extent that it is ruling our minds now. People around the world have started depending upon the updates, news, videos, pictures, games and so from the sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter etc. People nowadays use these sites to find and interact with new and old friends and keep in touch with them. As we see growing number of people using social networks for communication, we see now communicating using slangs and codes to make their conversations fast and effective. The slangs like ASAP, OMG, LOL, BRB have become the part user’s everyday life. These have become a new order of the day.
Digital slang ruling our lives
These abbreviations and slangs are becoming the very part of modern day internet savvy people. Even the oldies who have adopted technology in their daily lives have started catching up with the same. Of late, students have started demanding that such slangs and abbreviation should also be considered in written examination. With pressure growing on these universities, the people governing them are seen coming under this new pressure. Interestingly, according to the BBC report, these social media slang words have been incorporated in the Oxford Dictionary. Now that’s a big feat indeed.
Digital slangs in real time communication
Nowadays, you often hear young people exclaiming OMG instead of Oh My God! Now that’s the latest trend which is seen gearing up, people beside their online communication have started using these slang words in their real time communication. Even the work cultures too these days are dominated by these slangs. The industries which are often dominated by the youngsters are in forefront to adopt them to a great extent. The sectors like Information technology (both the hardware and software domain) and the BPO’s are the first one to catch this new trend. We often hear in their business communication with slangs like ASAP, BRB in their conference calls which they have with their clients.
Are these slangs a threat to language?
This is the debate you often see among the two camps- one who rejects this new idea while other, mostly the young support them. To be honest if we go deep into this dispute, we realize that these are escape routes which comes in the form of lazy shortcuts. In order to be fast, people have started caring the least about the appropriateness of the language. These slangs though would give the users an instant gratification, but the cost which they get this by losing the gleam and beauty of the language.
Last Word
We see a mixed kind of reactions coming from various quarters, with most of the people speaking in chorus that they want to replace the current language with these digital slang used in networking sites. However, the grammarian and the language guardians are strict and adamant in their views and call this trend a gross violation and decay of the language. Despite all the arguments and counter arguments about the digital slang, the fact remains, that these networking communication comes as an easy way to prevent the real and meaningful communication. Such language and slang should be confined to limited forums and platforms and shouldn’t be allowed to embark at places where meaningful and tangible world exist. Let’s not ruin the beauty of language by taking this escape and lazy route.
