Language Variations in the Digital Age: The Role of Social Media in Everyday Communication

Abstract

This paper examines language variation and change in social media communication, focusing on how digital platforms influence contemporary language use. Language constantly evolves in response to social and technological developments, and social media has become one of the most important spaces where these changes occur rapidly. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok create a unique communicative environment that combines features of spoken and written language and encourages informal, creative, and emotionally expressive interaction.

The study adopts a qualitative discourse-analytical approach and analyses publicly available posts and comments from major social media platforms. The analysis concentrates on four key aspects of social media language: neologisms, abbreviations and emojis, hashtags, and wordplay. These features are examined in terms of their communicative functions and their role in meaning-making within digital discourse.

The findings show that neologisms are a central feature of social media language. Many new words emerge from platform-specific practices and online behaviours, such as DM, vlog, doomscrolling, and ghosting. Particular attention is given to Georgian social media discourse, where English digital terms are actively borrowed and adapted to Georgian morphological patterns, demonstrating linguistic creativity and structural flexibility.

Abbreviations, acronyms, and emojis support fast communication and compensate for the absence of non-verbal cues. Emojis function as important tools for expressing emotion and identity, and their use varies across cultural contexts. In Georgian social media, emojis often reflect local cultural values and social identity. Hashtags are analysed as linguistic and ideological tools that organise discourse, express stance, and connect individual messages to wider social, cultural, and political movements, often through hybrid and multilingual forms.

The paper concludes that social media has a dual effect on language. While it promotes innovation, creativity, and lexical expansion, it may also challenge grammatical accuracy and appropriate register use. Overall, social media plays a crucial role in shaping contemporary language and requires balanced and ongoing linguistic analysis.