The Impact of Social Media on Language Change: How Twitter/X, Instagram, and TikTok Shape Language Evolution and Sociolinguistic Norms

Abstract

In this study, the authors consider the effects of social media usage on the language change, i.e., they raise the rate at which new linguistic forms emerge, spread, and become normal. The study employs a mixed-methods approach, which integrates corpus-linguistic study of a cross-platform sample, sampled in twelve months with social linguistics discourse study of the replies, comment threads, and Tik Tok remix interactions. The operationalization of linguistic innovation is done in five categories, namely lexical (slang and semantic shifts), orthographic (elongation, creative spelling, capitalization), morphosyntactic (innovative constructions and omission patterns), pragmatic/discourse (stance, irony, address terms), and multimodal resources (emoji sequences, overlays, audio templates). Findings indicate high platform effects: Twitter/X encourages compact and quotable formulations with high interactional uptake by quoting and hashtag indexing; Instagram encourages aestheticized stance and register construction by captionimage relations and sustained comment alignment; Tik Tok best encourages template-based diffusion with remixable audio and superimposition stabilizing catchphrases and recurring frames. On platforms, the change of language is closely related to sociolinguistic norm negotiation such as the policing of correctness and the authenticity/appropriation controversy as the innovation is transferred across communities. In general, the article states that platform affordances, algorithmic visibility, and community regulation are the combined factors that   either ensure the innovations are still fashionable events or they   be embedded into the norms of sociolinguistic conventions.

Keywords: Language Change; Social Media Linguistics; Twitter/x; Instagram; Tiktok; Diffusion; Multimodality