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ABSTRACT
This study aims to determine the extent of Millennials usage of Netspeak on the instant messaging platform Facebook Messenger. It employed both qualitative and quantitative questionnaires to gather data from a total of fifty-three (53) respondents. The findings showed that Millennials always (70.59% of the time) employ Netspeak. In particular, they use emojis (59.6%) and acronyms (35.3%). Their utilization of Netspeak is greatest in the context of communicating with friends and romantic partner/s. The propensity of Millennials to do so is premised on social theories of language acquisition which is further encouraged by the prevalence of the internet and the inherently interactive platforms found therein. This allows us to conclude that Millennials continuously and overwhelmingly create, use, and develop Netspeak.
Keywords: communication, internet, Millennials, Netspeak, Facebook Messenger
1.0 Introduction
Language is a tool for voicing ideas and opinions (El-Nashar 38). Language, particularly among today's youth, changes over time in terms of how it is used in a broad variety of cultures (Dronia, 2020). Millennials, a dominant group of people aged 22 to 38, have had a significant impact on the evolution of language (Angelfish Fieldwork, para. 4). According to the fieldwork conducted in 2021, some of them have acquired an entirely different language in order to address the language barrier of a specific individual's language preferences while remaining entirely capable of communicating with others (Andani and Nur Indah, 2020). This language is called Netspeak and includes the language, abbreviations and expressions inherent to communicating using the internet (Crystal, 17). It is characterized by messages that are typically written rapidly and in bursts (ADR, 2021).
The dominance of Netspeak was the result of accelerated technological development vis a vis, the internet (Mazor 3), which is touted as one of the most revolutionary inventions in history. Upon its conception, it was predicted that it would alter all environments and would begin to transform and improve the world (Curran et. al 2012). It achieved this through platforms such as the World Wide Web (WWW), social media, and email. Crystal (2010) claims that the internet has progressed from a source of knowledge to a source of information that has come to consume our lives. This is largely because "the internet is fully interactive; its effects can be...