Language and How It Changes in New Media

As human beings, the usage of language remains to be our major form of communication. There are different varieties of language, even within our own English language, but through this communication we are able to express our feelings, thoughts, and ideas. As time changes and technology advances, our culture advances as well, including the way we communicate.


Each new generation is different, and over the last 100 years each generation has witnessed a new form of communication. From early on we witnessed the newspaper develop into the radio, to television, to finally the internet. As we moved onto these different mediums, our language evolved. Radio personality’s talked and pronounced their speech in a more serious and precise way back in the 1940’s and 50’s; however, with the introduction of television, and the variety of shows and personality’s over the years, they began talking with a more relaxed and neutral tone.

Language in media changes to accommodate a steady changing culture. Presently we are now an impatient culture; we are a culture that is always on the go, and wants everything fast, easy, and at its best quality. With the introduction of the internet, instant messaging, and e-mails, a new form of written communication has developed. This new form has revised the English language into a form consisting of a variety of acronyms to express longer messages. Today’s internet generation uses acronyms such as, “OMG” to shorten the phrase “oh my God,” and “lmbo” to shorten the phrase “laughing my butt off.” These are just a few of the many acronyms used in text messing, e-mails, and instant messaging. These acronyms started out as just ways to shorten messages, but they are now starting to be used in everyday speech. This new way of communicating is starting to show up everywhere, and it’s beginning to be used so much that many often forget to write out the actual word when writing something serious, such as a school essay.

Some people may see this new change in language as a way of being lazy, and believe that children will not learn to spell accurately by communicating this way; however, this new development in linguistics promotes a new and fascinating way to communicate, and should be viewed as harmless, as long as we teach this generation that their is a correct time to use this type of language, and a time not to use it.

As time progresses, we can only look forward to the future and think of the many possible directions media will take our language next. With each new change we can only hope that it is for the better.