Let’s Study Grandma! Has Social Media Destroyed Language (Learning)?
Why the answer is “No”, Part 1
Social media is of course destroying society. No one talks to anyone anymore (except for online which of course doesn’t count). Everyone is depressed (okay, that one’s kind of true). No one knows how to use punctuation properly anymore, endangering grandmas everywhere.
We’re clearly headed for an apocalyptic, cannibalistic, post-comma world. I used to be angry and cranky and opposed to all of this. Now I’m too busy being angry and cranky about other things, so I figure why not consider what language acquisition will look like in this dark future?
The standard division of language skills is reading, writing, listening and speaking. A text and video heavy app such as Instagram engages its users in all of those things (of course while simultaneously stealing their data and subconsciously planting advertisers’ ideas in their brains, which are the things I spend my time getting angry and cranky about). So, with a bit of consternation that I’m recommending you do something which will make more money for Mark Zuckerberg, I’m going to describe how Instagram can support language acquisition. (Alternatively, I could choose an app making Elon Musk more money which suddenly makes Instagram feel way less disgusting, still disgusting, mind you, just less so).¹
First off, social media has a couple of things going for it. One is that we all are addicted to it already, so coming back to my language acquisition is as easy as cracking that next beer. Which seems like a way lower barrier to entry than studying a grammar chart (although, believe it or not, you may find some of those on Instagram and they are decidedly easier to consume in that setting). If motivation is a challenge for you in language study, then social media may offer a helpful solution.
Another advantage social media offers, specifically Instagram, is that it’s filled with nice things to look at and watch. Pretty pictures and short videos designed to capture your attention are surrounded by language which is clearly connected to whatever you’re looking at. I might not know the word for puppies in Russian, but I’ll have a much better guess if I’m looking at a picture of a bunch of puppies and reading the description below it. Meaning communicated visually helps make sense of meaning being communicated through language, which is clutch when the language is the challenging part. Anything that helps me make sense of the language is helping me acquire it.
Additionally, the content on Instagram is in bite-sized chunks. [Please insert standard argument about how everyone’s attention span is now shorter and no one is willing to sit through an entire conversation without looking at their phone anymore]. Small chunks of language are key when learning languages. We can only keep up with new language for so long before we start losing attention and meaning; there is so much information and it requires focused thinking to make sense of what we’re hearing and seeing. Small chunks are digestible. And they are small enough that we can rewatch and reread a couple of times without falling afoul of that complete lack of attention span that has now infected the entire human species.
Finally, for all the blathering and empty words about how social media is about connection and community, there is some truth to that. Granted it’s largely about connecting the users with advertisers, but that’s still connection right? But in all seriousness, even if we have to wade through endless advertisements we are still communicating with other people. They are sharing ideas, images, thoughts, (projections, pretenses, and lies) with us. But they are sharing these things using a combination of images, video and language. Connection and communication through language is both the means and the end of language acquisition.
So, social media, despite its apocalyptic implications, holds the power for real, meaningful language communication and thus acquisition. We can use language, learn language, understand language and be motivated to keep going. But what does that look like? Keep an eye out for my next post (don’t worry I’ll share it on social media so you don’t have to go out into the real world to find it), where I’ll explain the nuts and bolts of how I’ve been using Instagram for language acquisition. Unless between now and then my friends invite me to dinner but forget the comma in “Let’s eat Tyler”. Then it was nice knowing you — virtually of course.
¹ TikTok is another conceivable alternative, but I’m a millennial and I stay on my own turf.
