Constantly evolving language

Language is constantly evolving in response to making and maintaining friendships. To an extent this is driven by young people who often develop new words to describe situations. Similarly, slang is constantly evolving. What is correct slang for today’s 16 year old, will have changed for today’s 6 year old by the time they are 16 years old.

Every group of young people tends to see their own experiences of life as "no one else has ever felt like this" or "what do you know, you don’t understand what it’s like". The language used tends to reflect the trends or the limitations of technology at the time, for example, messaging is an increasingly popular way for young people to communicate with friends. In a recent Ofcom (2011) survey, 62% of young people aged 16 to 24 preferred to use text messages over other means of communicating. The style of text will depend on who the young person is texting and why. With friends, messaging will typically use shortened words, abbreviations and non-standard words. With others, the same young person may write the message in full so what is typed is fully understood.