From the rise of Facebook back in 2004, social media has entered our daily lives and is intertwined within every aspect of it. It has allowed us to communicate with millions of people in a way that was simply not possible before. It allows us to keep friendships alive at a long distance, transforming the way we communicate along the way, from sharing photos and videos, to planning social events like birthday parties, gatherings at the office, even homecoming dances. Most people tend to organize their social lives through some technology based engagement, or at least, to have their social life influenced by it. But the most noticeable change occurs in the way we write and express our thoughts.
1. We write in an almost different language
There are social media sites that have a character limit imposed on its users that makes it impossible to express their thoughts fully, and it makes them condense their sentences. This has lead to an excessive use of textspeak: a combination of abbreviations and acronyms that are evolving into new words that sometimes have a different meaning from the original abbreviation. Some people consider this as murder of the English language, while others consider it a natural evolution brought on by the needs of social media. There are many instances where the overuse of slang and abbreviations is inappropriate, and even though textspeak has found its way into written papers, emails, blogs, and books, most writers are aware of this and keep it to a minimum in their works.
2. We include humor in our work
Social networking communication has thrown formality out the window and brought in informal and casual communication which is accompanied by good humor ninety percent of the time. This is caused by the community appeal of the social networks that makes us become less formal in our expressions. Hence, the funnier posts and other works will attract more readers, even when they are devoted to a dark topic. Dark wit and sarcasm are powerful tools for communicating in a digestible way your quick wit or sarcasm.
3. We become precise and concise
This is the second byproduct of the character limitations on some social media websites. We tend to get to the point faster. Gone is the sweeping prose, even when you’re writing a blog post – you only have a couple of seconds to woo the reader in and ensure they read your whole story. You have to jump right into the point from the start. Additionally, it’s very challenging to write a story using only 140 characters (the character limit on Twitter), but there are some creative souls that would take the challenge and become masters of that craft.
4. We use short sentences
Most people today are used to reading short sentences. Therefore, if we write long sentences that contain more than 20 words, most readers would find it really difficult to read and understand. That’s why we incorporate short sentences when we write, and we use more contractions. Breaking a long sentence into shorter ones eases the readers into your content and helps them pay attention and follow what you have to say. It might seem like compromise; however, it is not without its own merits.
Today, the internet is filled with bad writing, so good writing has become ever more prized. If you use the medium wisely and effectively, your writing will get an audience ready to read whatever you write, simply because the great amount of bad writing, which is filled with poor use of grammar and an unnecessary use of textspeak, makes people appreciate the good stuff more.
Image credit: Jeff Turner on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/photo.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Georgina Roy wants to live in a world filled with magic.
As a 22-year-old art student, she’s moonlighting as a writer and is content to fill notebooks and sketchbooks with magical creatures and amazing new worlds. When she is not at school, or scribbling away in a notebook, you can usually find her curled up, reading a good urban fantasy novel, or writing on her laptop, trying to create her own.
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