Digitally Speaking: Multitasking and the Future of Digital Language for Academic Communication

Abstract

Technological advancement including the emergence of social media has brought irreversible changes to the 21st century communications landscape. With opportunities for anytime-anywhere connectivity on different kinds of gadgets for real time sharing, there has been a strong and very noticeable effect on language use in social interactions. With the increased need for multitasking, the need for increased speed, especially in written communication, has resulted in the trend towards an emerging digital dialect using abbreviated words, figures as well as a combination of words from many languages. New digital vocabularies emerge daily and one wonders if this may end up on the pages of academic materials soon. This paper examines current trends in communicative languages in digital environments especially written communication in the age of media multitasking. The implication for education is discussed from the standpoint of language development. The need for multitasking is a major reason for the language shift being observed though there appears to be a distinction between structures for formal and social communication in spite of the shift. The possibility of a new language emerging in time still requires further studies as upcoming generations are likely to be more impatient than the current one.