Effects of social media on students’ writing the case of Mount Mary College of Education

Abstract

This study aims at assessing the effects of social media language (net language) on the formal writing of Mount Mary College of Education students. A total of 150 students made up of 60 males and 90 females who study English language and French were used for this research. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the respondents. The Initialism Theory which was modified by David Crystal was used as a framework for this study. Respondents‟ whatsapp screen shots, marked quiz papers and group assignments were analysed. The study concluded that social media do affect respondents‟ formal writing when they write individually. However, it does not affect students when they work in groups. Another conclusion that was drawn from the study was that respondents use all kinds of social media language such as clipping, abbreviation, alphanumeric homophony, vowel deletion, and graphone among others. The study revealed that most of the respondents use social media or internet language when typing on social media to facilitate their communication process.