Social media stretches far and wide in our daily lives, from checking what your friends are up to on Facebook, checking what’s new on Pinterest or Instagram, or maybe even hoping one of your favorite bloggers has updated a new post for the day. Regardless, social media permeates throughout countries, as it merges communities together, transforming the way language is perceived.
The spread of slang through social media sites is an example of multiculturalism, molding languages so that there is a universal language everyone on the Internet understands. A blogger in India may not be able to carry a political conversation with a blogger in the Netherlands but they both would most likely understand “LOL” or “planking”. Through the internet and the fast-paced technology available, the proliferation of words moves like wildfire. Although there might be cultural and language barriers, words expressed and used across social media sites allows for a cohesion—one where people are able to relate to, and a tool for people to express themselves and could be understood regardless of a country’s border.
As a result of social media diffusion, language evolves and carries throughout countries and people, regardless of race of culture. Ideas are spread and people pick up globalizing trends in fashion, thought, and hobbies. What does this mean for the future? A more unified world with a global culture and language that might blur the lines between cultures that have been historically distinct but offer a greater understanding of one’s position in relation to everyone else.
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