Influence Of Instant Messaging On The Standard English Language
As of today, millions of people around the world use some form of instant messaging, whether it’s iMessage, Facebook, WhatsApp, or other messaging platforms. In the documentary film “Do you speak American?”, journalist Robert MacNeil traveled around the country, asking students about their instant messaging usages. He proves how instant messaging is having huge impacts on the Standard English language. However, I feel that instant messaging presents a greater threat to written language than spoken language.
When MacNeil asked students about their instant messaging usages, one of the students said that she spends about an hour and a half messaging her peers. Another student said he would often message his peers while listening to music and doing his homework. During MacNeil’s investigation, he found that Black English is a big influence on the language of instant messaging. In addition, nowadays, no one uses capitalization or punctuation while sending messages, which is impacting how people write outside of the messaging platforms. People have been using shortcuts and acronyms for words that they can make shorter. For example, “My bad” translates to “Oh, I just made a mistake”, and “Wassup b” translates to “How are you?”. In addition, common acronyms people use include “g2g” (I got to go), “jc” (just chilling), and “lol” (laughing out loud).
Written English has always been the preserver of Standard English, but with these acronyms that are beginning to become widely used outside of the messaging platforms, written English in America has been changing substantially over the last hundred years. The documentary mentioned how even the most formal publications, such as The New Yorker or the New York Times, have started to use a wide variety of colloquial and slang language in their new articles. Today’s newspaper audience is engrossed in these ways of speaking and want to use these slang words in their own writing. In the long run, written English has become much more informal than it has been in the past.
On the other hand, I feel that e-mail does not directly present a major threat to spoken or written language. In Laurie Beaver’s article “Here’s how Millennials are Impacting the Future of Communication”, she explains how different ways of communication are affected by how people in the 21st century communicate. Beaver mentions that currently, social messaging platforms have been taking over different methods of communication. However, “e-mail maintains an entrenched position as a trusted form of communication among consumers.” This seems to be because e-mail is the most used communication for older generations and is often used for marketers in reaching consumers.
I agree with Beaver’s study of the fact of how e-mail is often used for business and communication among older generations. To this day, I receive e-mails from stores that are promoting sales and informing customers of what the company has in store. These e-mails are ways to communicate and engage with consumers easily and may be distributed in mass. If people have been writing informal personal letters for centuries, e-mails can be viewed both similar and different to informal letters. E-mails that have been sent and received these days are not as formal as written correspondence once was. Most e-mails today have more of a casual tone, feel more natural, and are quicker to formulate. However, if the e-mail is a business e-mail, or written to someone of a higher position, then formality is necessary. In comparison to informal personal letters, these letters are still relatively informal, but most of the time, one mistake in a letter can result in a whole new copy to be rewritten.
In general, compared to e-mails and letters, instant messaging is most likely the least formal type of written communication. While sending messages, people make many grammatical errors all the time without giving a second thought. Formality and informality in written language differ based on who it is directed to. For example, in a formal business letter or e-mail, the writer sending the letter would most likely salute the recipient with “Dear Sir or Madam” or “To Whom It May Concern”. Nevertheless, in an informal letter or e-mail to a friend, people mostly skip the greetings or even say “What’s up”. Similar to spoken language, it varies based on whom one is talking to. If someone is speaking to another who is higher in importance, then more formality will be needed, compared to speaking to another of the same or lower importance.
In today’s society, instant messaging is critical. If you look outside, you could see everyone typing away on their smartphones, sending text messages. Instead of typing in the spoken language, many abbreviations are commonly used. As mentioned in the documentary, “lol” (Laughing out loud) is often used, and “omg” (Oh my gosh), and “ily” (I love you) are also very common. In my opinion, I feel that it is more convenient to use these abbreviations because it not only saves time but it is also easily understood by the receiver. Over the past couple of years, language has been changing drastically and this change is inevitable. Although some may be against these changes, people today are quickly adapting to this type of written language and are typing away on their smartphones.
