The Influence of Youth Language Styles on Social Media on Academic Literacy: An Educational Linguistics Perspective

Abstract

The phenomenon of youth language styles on social media is gaining increasing attention as it reflects significant changes in the linguistic practices of the younger generation, while also raising questions about its impact on academic literacy. This research aimed to investigated the influence of digital language styles, such as slang, code-mixing, abbreviations, and formal language on youths’ academic literacy, particularly in reading and writing formal texts. Employing a descriptive qualitative research design, the data were collected from a corpus of youths’ social media posts, selected based on their relevance to linguistic variation and frequency of use. The data were analyzed using an educational linguistics approach, focusing on language forms and their implications for academic literacy development. The findings indicate that slang and code-mixing are the most dominant language forms, followed by abbreviations and formal language usage. The findings reveal that the most dominant language forms are slang and code-mixing, followed by abbreviations and formal language. These forms were shown to affect academic literacy, especially in terms of consistency in using standard language and sentence structure in academic writing. Furthermore, the relationship between youth language styles on social media and the development of academic literacy is ambivalent: on one hand, it weakens formal language skills, but on the other, it offers educational opportunities through teaching strategies that emphasize contrastive awareness and translanguaging. Thus, this research highlights the importance of educational linguistics in bridging the gap between youths’ informal language styles and the formal literacy demands of academic contexts.