Using language in a certain way positions us in society. Our knowledge of language helps us to express ourselves in a more or less informal register depending on the context in which we find ourselves.

Besides, the use of language in social media is able to shape the way we think about public figures, from singers and actors to politicians, and helps us to form a real image of them that once could be considered more or less idyllic.

The impact of social media on language and the way we write speak volumes about us. Misspellings or writing with abbreviations more than we should are part of social media slang. Find out today with iScribo how we use language where people see it most.

The Importance of Language in Social Media

The capacity of social media to modify language is immense. The new generations use Internet channels to express colloquial Spanish, which does not always mean an enrichment of the language, but also paves the way for the expansion of unnecessary foreignisms or grammatical incorrectness.

One of the negative effects of social media on language is the attention deficit: how many times do people ask unnecessary questions that are written and clarified in the post itself?

But it’s not all negative, language has found a way to propagate the good use of it, and we can find that example in the way the RAE and Fundéu reach out to their followers through their social media channels. After all, the Internet and modern media are an opportunity to spread the good use of the Spanish language to the whole world.

Evolution of Language in Social Media

Can you imagine Cervantes using emojis? Here is an example of how language has evolved thanks to the Internet. Some people have even had the brilliant idea – and the time, it must be said – to express sayings in Spanish with emojis, we have chosen one, just for fun:

🐴🎁🚫👁️🦷. Do you know what it means? We’ll reveal it to you later.

Social media has also changed the way we express ourselves, now we are more concise. The restriction of characters and the need to attract readers’ attention means that the speech is short, clear and concise. Where we write normally is on the computer and where we publish our thoughts the most is on social media, and we do transfer this feeling to our daily lives. Baroque is more than ever part of the past! Thanks to social networks, simple language is in vogue.

Benefits of Social Media in Language Learning

Now, let’s talk about the evolution of vocabulary. Did you know that a lot of words have been created due to the influence of social media? The acceptance and formation of new words is a fact.

Here are some examples: tuitear, retuitear, tuit, tuitero, etc., (tweet, retweet, twitter), arrobar (press at), favear (fav), googlear (google something) or wasapear (send a WhatsApp). However, not all of them are related to applications and the companies that manage social media, but there are many others such as bitcoin (bitcoin), bot, ciberacoso (cyberbullying), ciberdelincuencia (cybercrime), criptomoneda (cryptocurrency), geolocalizar (geolocate), webinario (webinar), cortapegar (cut and paste) o copiapega (copy and paste), all of them accepted by the RAE.

What about the pandemic words? If it were not for social media, minority words in some Spanish-speaking countries such as cubrebocas, hisopado or nasobuco (they all mean ‘face mask’) would not have reached us.

This is the new language of the 21st century, and of course, social media and the Internet are responsible for it. We are enriching the language!

iScribo on Social Media

iScribo understands the importance of language in social media. That’s why we use our online channels to teach you the good use of written Spanish and, with our tool, we help you to improve your written comprehension.

Have you already visited our Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram channels? In addition to this blog, we use them to help you learn Spanish tips and interact with other users who have the same purpose and goal as you: to write properly in Spanish. By the way, the saying above is “A caballo regalado, no le mirres el diente” (don’t look a gift horse in the mouth), have you guessed it? Tell us in the comments.