Facebook Communication.

How social media is changing language (2017)

Most people understand that there are differences between oral and written language. Communication involves the transfer of information from one person to another. This transfer could be presented in many ways, two being; oral or written. The transfer of writing is more static compared to speaking which is a more energetic transfer of information. It is known that although speech alone cannot materially transform nature, it can direct attention, organize insignificant entities into significant composite wholes, and in so doing, make things formerly over looked-and hence invisible and non-existent, visible and real, Tuan (1991).

When people describe a place to you, they tend to describe it the way they experience it. This experience could be completely different to, say a person standing centimetres away, the factors that influence people’s experiences usually depend on their background, attitudes, beliefs, perspectives and many other things. So, the way a person uses their language to describe a place is based on how they experience it. Speech is a component of the total force that transforms nature into a human place. But speech can be an effective force acting alone or almost alone, Tuan (1991). The right to name is a form of empowerment, when people hear about the place by its name or description it already creates an idea of the place being described. Even though they do not see it they already have an idea of the place and this could be negative of positive depending on what they have heard about it.

Facebook users use their language to describe their experiences of places and situations. They combine different forms of language to support their experiences which ultimately makes other users read about their experiences differently from how it would have actually occurred. Words can also be replaced with Emojis, an emoji is a visual representation of an emotion, object or symbol and are mostly used in modern communication apps. Basically, Facebook allows users to use their language to see the world in words, to call something a “Mount” or a “Valley” or a “Plain” represents a way of seeing the world that is English according to Dr Victoria Kuttainen (2017). T

Since being introduced to Facebook I have become aware of how Facebook, as well as other social media sites, has influenced and also continues to influence the language in which I write. When you think about it the words that surround us every day influence the words we use. Since so much of the written language we see is now on the screens of our computers, tablets, and smartphones, language now evolves partly through our interaction with technology. Because the language we use to communicate with each other tends to be more malleable than formal writing, combining informal and personal communication plus a huge audience provided by social media equals a fast change for language.

In the era of social networking sites, digital media present us with a very different and in some ways opposite set of concerns. They way that we send a receive information is more important than the message itself, Marshall McLuhan (1967). There is a popular belief that the Internet is in fact allowing a dramatic expansion to take place in the range and variety of language. Soon standard of language will be lost and creativity weakened as the world imposes sameness. Facebook users are continually searching for vocabulary to describe their experiences, to capture the character of the electronic world, and to overcome the communicative limitations of its technology.

References

·         Kuttainen, V. (2017). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives, and the Making of Place, Week 5: Stories of place: Story lines. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/

·         McLuhan, M (1967) The Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan | Animated Book Review| You tube video. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCr2binb4Fs

·         Tuan, Y-F. (1991). Language and the making of place: A narrative-descriptive approach. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 81(4), 684-696.

·        How social media is changing language (2017). Retrieved Image from: scyther5 / Shutterstock.com