Филологические науки /7. Язык, речь, речевая коммуникация

Студентка, Мурзина А.Р.

Казанский (Приволжский) федеральный университет, Россия

К.п.н. Баранова А.Р.

Казанский (Приволжский) федеральный университет, Россия

Social Media Slang in communication

Summary: The article deals with the usage of social media slang beyond mass communications via the Internet. Distinguished features of social media are analyzed. The causes of the origin of slang in the sphere of social media are investigated. It has been revealed that network slang is increasingly being used in live communication, thereby gradually entering the classical language.

Keywords: language, speaker, translation, text, model, minority, speech, semantics, social media, Internet, network slang, slang.

Nowadays, more and more people start being interested in social media because the Internet “is conquering the world”. Every day, the number of Internet users increases, and people of all ages are getting involved with the World Wide Web. The Internet is now available to children who hardly speak.

Social media is a type of mass communication via the Internet. The Internet is also new socio-cultural environment that affects all aspects of communication, including a language [1]. Language is the main means of communication, expression of thoughts and feelings. Communication can be of different forms. Users can share their opinions, knowledge and experience, interact with each other, establish contacts, and share ideas, news, information, videos, music and photos. There are many types of social media, for example, blogs, business networks, industrial social networks, dating sites, photo hostings, forums, microblogs, feedbacks sites, social bookmarks, social games and video hostings [2].

In 2007, American researcher B. Solis in his article “The Definition of Social Media” reveals the meaning of this term as: “Social media, in its most general form, are ways by means of which people discover, read, and comment on news, information and content. It is a fusion of social component and high technologies, which transform a monologue into a dialogue” [9].

It all began with electronic bulletin boards in the late 70s. Electronic bulletin boards were the first type of sites that allowed users to log in and communicate with each other. It was very slow compared to the speed in our time. After the electronic bulletin boards, the first truly serious attempts to access the Internet were such online services as CompuServe and Prodigy. Then ICQ and IRC (Internet Relay Chat) appeared. Almost at once, as people began to use the Internet, dating sites appeared. They are considered to be the first social networks. Users could create user accounts with photos and communicate with other users.

In 1999 LiveJournal was launched. It used a different approach to the concept of social networks. It was built as a social network of constantly updated blogs. Soon such major achievements in the field of social networks as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and others began to appear.

The well-known American author R.Scobl in his article “What is social media?” describes the distinctive characteristics of social media in detail. It is an opportunity to correct published information, interactivity, quick availability of old materials, multimedia, unlimited volume, and links to other information [10].

Another feature of social media is the presence of a great amount of network slang. Network slang is a jargon used when communicating through computer networks, namely via the largest of them, i.e. the Internet. Slang, as a social form of speech, differs from the national language with specific vocabulary and phraseology. A lot of colloquial words and expressions, namely neologisms that belong to informal communication are also referred to “slang” [8]. The main features of these words are the freshness, originality, and unexpectedness of their usage. Such characteristics are typical for neologisms of a conversational type. But these are the very features that facilitate the inclusion of such words in the category of “slang”. It is so difficult to determine the difference between literary words and some words that are referred to as “slang”, that in the authoritative English and American dictionaries there are double usage labels, i.e. (infml) or (slang) [6].

Network slang is fuller of abbreviations and peculiar symbols. For example, b/t – “between”, b2u – “back to you”, kek – “laughing out loud”, l8 – “late”, pix – “pictures”, purty – “pretty”, r – “are”, rong – “wrong”, ru – “are you”, w/ - “with” [3].New slang words are formed as a result of the appearance of various social networks, search engines, sites, games and other means of communication. Users come up with slang words to describe a subject, an action or a person quickly and clearly [7]. For example, facebookian is a user of Facebook social network; tweetheart is a very popular Twitter user; mac nazi is a person who is obsessed with Apple products; Igers (“Instagrammers”) are people who use Instagram; gloatgram means to post in Instagram, showing how good the author’s life is; screenager (“screen + teenager”) is a teenager who does not leave a computer; muddie is a fan of the game MUD; googleable is something that can be found in search engines; cybersickness (“cyber + sickness”) is a feeling of pain, caused by continuous searching the Internet; tweetup means to make an appointment via Twitter; iFinger is a finger that is left clean so that you can continue using your smartphone or tablet without having dirtied it; twalking is used to describe someone who is walking while they tweet, using a mobile device; tweeple is used to refer to or describe Twitter users; and others [4].

Currently there are a lot of different dictionaries, in most cases, electronic, devoted to slang on the Internet. However, it is not so easy for everyone to find the difference between media slang and ordinary communication in real life, because, slang words appear very rapidly. By I.R. Galperin, “no dictionary can, and should immediately fix their appearance” [5].

Social media and communication via the Internet have become an integral part of our lives, and the younger generation does not imagine their lives without making a selfie or reposting a post on social networks. The usage of slang words that replace the description of complex concepts and processes helps to optimize communication between people. It makes speech simpler, faster, and in some cases more understandable. Moreover, the boundary between communication on the Internet and in reality is gradually disappearing, and, consequently, the network slang is being used more frequently in live communication, thereby gradually entering the classical language.

References

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2 Baranova A.R., Ladner R.A., Nesterova S.S. Computer slang // National Association of Scientists. #4 (20). Part 1. Yekaterinburg, 2016. Pp. 154-156.

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