TOEFL essay prompt #2

The Change Envisioned within the 21st Century: Language?

21^st century. People call this era we’re living in the technological revolution. Manufacturers compete to invent the most productive semiconductor, and marketers strive to make their products the most attractive- yes, making your iPhone thinner, faster, and lovelier does matter these days. The usage of internet and phones is rapidly spreading. However, it’s not only the technology that is changing in a twinkle, but the language used among those technologies is too. As our world develops, we need new mechanisms for describing new concepts, and express our changing ideas and concerns. Language is alive. Language is changing in the 21^st century, regarding the increase in abbreviations and slangs that knock our eardrums each day.

Have you ever received a text full of jargon, which is all and only words, and no punctuation? Lots of abbreviations substitute longer words today. English used in text messages and social network has influenced the way people write and speak. People abbreviate a lot more, and some abbreviated words are starting to leak into daily routines, such as lol or asap. Because one keeps confining their thoughts and conversation within 140 characters, more abbreviations would take place in the English language. It's even more convenient to write or type abbreviations; therefore the usage of abbreviations is flaring rapidly among users of technology.

People use slang. Slang is so much submerged into our lives that we don’t even notice what we’re saying is slang. Slang is widely used and will be used, according to the book Feed by M. T. Anderson. In the book, the characters within say words like "unit", meaning buddy and "feel swiss" to illustrate anticipation and excitement, which readers have difficulty in understanding those terms but are perfectly normal and familiar for the characters of the book. Words such as "emo", or "what's up", seem perfectly normal, but those are slang, a product of the informational technological era. Such terms are prevalent, and as more and more people become used to the Internet and the language circulating within, slang usage would be more and more promoted in the future.

New media- the Web or social media tools- have made both written and spoken language much more visible. In particular, increased use of electronic communication has given us new forms of language and expressions largely driven by a need to compensate for non-verbal communication. That's why contemporary language such as abbreviations or slang pops up ceaselessly, and the English language is still on its way of adapting itself the new, rapidly changing society.