Has the Internet hindered the Standard of English Language?                       

There has been one invention brought into the world, which has single headedly changed the way we live in the world, the internet. Just think for a minute how life would be so much different life was like before the Internet. It’s hard to imagine a period where there was no Twitter, Facebook, Google, Instagram and Yahoo. From the times where if we wanted to communicate to someone we had to physically go to and meet people, to now where we have ability to instantly text, email, video chat, and communicate with people through social network platforms. Include the way the internet makes it capable for students across the world and the persisting advancements in the forever evolving technology of the internet. However in contrast to this the internet is not all sunshine and rainbows, and actually there are many flaws to using the internet, one of these negatives is the exploitation of the English Language. The internet has allowed people to speak in an informal manner and to some have “tarnished” the existence of Standard English in our society. The phrases “dat” and “ting” are just a few of the examples which showcase how people across Britain have been demonstrated using to each other across social media platforms, “Are you one of these people who use this informal style of language and do you believe that you are hindering the reputation of standard English Language? Many believe that not only has the popular emergence of using slang has affected the appearance of proper English Language, it has also further divided the young generation from the older generation who use more formal language.

Some Linguistics believe that the English language is not really being altered or modified, but however the Language has been remodelled by the use of abbreviations and slang. Words such as “dat” and “ting” still contain the same meanings -that and thing respectively, show why some linguistics believe that that they are just abbreviations for words but still have the same meaning. This is style of informal language is commonly used on as it is a networking base where people speak to each other in a friendly environment and socialise, so a lot of slang and informal language is used, as it is a modern method of conversing. As the demographics of people that use twitter are in the teenage and early adult age group, the audience are going to be people around this social demographic. With the Internet being such a broad database for an almost infinite amount of information, the Internet does not have the sole purpose for communicating and socialising with people on social media, the Internet is also a great place for learning and gathering information for educational purposes. Websites like Wikipedia are great resources for fid information on a specific topic that the reader wants to find research on. Whereas, website like Twitter, uses shorter more abbreviated words to communicate and socialise with each other, mostly in an informal manner, abbreviated word -Wikipedia does the complete opposite other and uses longer words in a formal format. This mostly used on Wikipedia as its purpose is to accurately be an informative website which gives information in its full entirety with no simplified explanation. The audience of Wikipedia is more in the demographic age of adults, which explains the higher range of vocabulary in the format of more longer more complex words in the on the website.  If you compare the English language used on Wikipedia, the English used in Wikipedia is very similar to the language used in Standard English Language, longer more complex words are commonly implemented in the text which is contextualized formally. Then there are websites such as Bitesize, which also have the sole purpose to inform and educate people, specifically students to topics related to their studies in school to further improve their education. Websites like these have actually benefited the English Language as they have used a more formal and sophisticated choice of language which is sustaining the formality of Standard English, instead of using informal and slang English. 

Even with the constant criticism texting online gets, Prof Crystal believes that text speak has been overhyped and in fact, abbreviated texting doesn’t even use a lot of abbreviated language which it has perceived to contain. Also, only 10% of the words in an average text are not written in full, he added.

  It can be said though, that the introducing of certain words with them being implemented into today’s society across the internet on popular videos on one of the most popular websites, YouTube, or made into a comedic trend on popular apps such as vine which is then showed across the whole of social media, will popularise that specific phrase and make it mainstream for all people around the world to use in their standard vocabulary. For example the Word, “Bruh” which means how someone is surprised or shocked or surprised, is a world famous quote in the Urban Dictionary, which was made famous by a vine in America. Since the introduction of this phrase, Americans and people all over the entire World use it in everyday lingo on social media.

With this being said, the internet has definitely stamped it’s ark on the English Language by the use of new phrases being invented and brought into the limelight of being mainstream by the exposure of it to a wide scale of people via social media. These new phrases being implemented into mana. These new phrases being implemented into many people’s regular daily vocabulary, is what many Linguists feel is changing the English Language being spoken by people and is instead degrading the Standard of English. Technology is still evolving and revolutionising the way people can communicate, educate and socialise in the World, the English Language is going to continue to introduce new language from the influence of different cultures as the internet will continue to connect people together as a society from around the world. The integration of people from different places in world, surely would just continue to make the English Language expand and broaden as new words and phrases are introduced by people from different nations and cultures being cohesive and share different aspects of English Language. There being more promotion of different variations of the English Language through social media, will only give people a better understanding of the Language used by different people from backgrounds and who have different dialects and aspects of English Language of various people.