To Investigate the Influence of Social Media on Second Language (L2) Writing Skills

Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate the influence of social media on L2 writing skills. The popularity of social media sites has changed the way young adults communicate through written L2 language on various social media platforms. Therefore, researchers selected 40 females through a purposive sampling technique via mixed methodology. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 respondents on WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Messenger video calls. The quantitative data was collected online. The qualitative data and Demographics were analyzed in tables, and the quantitative data were substituted in Figures. The findings revealed that social media widens vocabulary, fluency, and exposure to the English language; on the other hand, it also leads to informal writing such as abbreviations, omitting capitalization, and reducing grammatical accuracy. The use of abbreviations can derogate academic writing without conscious effort. The study further revealed that social media is a double-edged sword, which weakens academic writing and boosts communicative features of students. At the same time, it leads to informal language use. Therefore, stakeholders should guide pupils to avoid informal writing communication.