A study by La Sapienza University in Rome revealed last Thursday (5) that the continuous use of social media has changed people's language due to the greater frequency of use of hashtags, emojis, gifs and memes instead of words.
The experts analyzed around 300 million English-language comments from eight different platforms (Facebook, Twitter-X, Gab, Reddit, Telegram, Usenet, Voast and YouTube) that were made over the past 34 years of linguistic interactions on social media.
The survey, which focused on the richness of users' vocabulary, indicated that a process of linguistic simplification is taking place in the media, including reduced lexical richness and shorter comments. Most users, for example, use up to 10 unique words, indicating a modest lexical size.
Despite the presence of shorter texts and the introduction of a less rich vocabulary, the researchers analyzed a large number of new words formed, which demonstrates how language remains dynamic even in a context of lexical impoverishment.
“Understanding the impact of digital platforms on user behavior presents fundamental challenges, including issues related to polarization, the dynamics of misinformation and variation in news consumption,” the scholars said.
According to experts, the increasing use of abbreviations, as well as hashtags and emoticons, is the result of a change that is already underway, accelerated by digital globalization. The same process of simplification would have occurred in the Romance languages compared to the Latin from which they derive. (HANDLE)
