Social Media Influence on Pakistani Youth’s Linguistic Expressions: A Predictive Study of Resultant Changes

Abstract

Social media has taken over our lives in this era of technology and globalization in many ways. Among many other impacts on the users, the language choices, and expressions, mostly preferred by youth, are manipulated and affected by such online platforms. With this in view, this research seeks to understand how social media has transformed the language expressions of young Pakistanis. It also focuses on the possible resultant changes in linguistic choices made by youth after being influenced by social media. Data was collected through previous papers to discover the research gaps, and an online survey/questionnaire was administered to fulfil this study's goal. Fifty participants were randomly selected from five educational institutions in Sialkot, Pakistan (Govt. College Women University, NISA College, University of Management and Technology, University of Central Punjab, and Govt. Murray Graduate College). The data was critically, qualitatively, and quantitatively evaluated and analyzed. Furthermore, the research findings have shown that social media language dominates youngsters' linguistic expressions in several ways. A shift could be observed from using the alphabet to signs and symbols impacting the youth's academic and formal linguistic expression in educational institutes.