In the second decade of the twenty-first century, a message could begin with a sentence, continue with a picture, end with an emoji and still make perfect sense to its intended reader. A teenager could learn an unfamiliar word through a video, an author could publish a thought to strangers in another country, and an argument that once took weeks to circulate could spread across online networks within minutes.
Between 2010 and 2020, smartphones, social media, messaging apps, streaming video and increasingly searchable digital archives changed the environments in which English was learned and used. In 2010, Unicode 6.0 added hundreds of emoji characters already important in Japanese mobile communication. Oxford’s Word of the Year choices included selfie in 2013 and the tears-of-joy emoji in 2015. Online language became more visual and more openly shaped by communities that were not waiting for a printed dictionary to approve their expressions.
Did emoji replace English words? Did social media ruin grammar? Why did new terms travel so quickly, and how did people in Singapore continue moving between Standard English and everyday local speech? This chapter follows an English language that is still recognisably descended from earlier centuries but now operates inside an environment where words, images, sound and social relationships are brought together on a small screen.
Explore the decade in two shorter chapters: 2010–2015 CE: Emoji, Instagram, Selfies and Mobile Language · 2015–2020 CE: Post-Truth, Disinformation and Online Literacy. One explores new expressive forms; the other examines how readers can test the claims those forms carry.
The whole conversation fits in a hand
Imagine comparing a long formal letter with an exchange of short phone messages.
The letter may explain its purpose gradually, providing context because the sender and receiver are separated by distance. A conversation on a messaging app may rely on earlier exchanges, shared jokes and immediate replies.
The second message can be shorter without being meaningless. Its readers often already know what the participants are discussing.
But the same brevity can cause trouble. If a message is forwarded outside its original context, the reader may miss its tone, assume the wrong audience or misunderstand the significance of a phrase.
This is a recurring challenge in language history: every medium creates new conditions for interpretation.
A stone inscription, a handwritten letter, a printed pamphlet and a smartphone message all preserve words in different ways.
The language must serve the task, not the other way around.
Smartphones changed where people read
Mobile internet access allowed more people to read, write and watch digital content away from a desk.
An English learner could encounter subtitles while travelling, consult a dictionary during a conversation, send a quick question to a tutor or read a news report from another country.
Those are genuine opportunities for learning. They do not guarantee that every minute spent using a phone develops strong comprehension.
A reader may move quickly between small pieces of information without building a deeper understanding of any one source.
At the same time, a phone can support sustained reading, note-taking, audio learning and access to library resources.
The device does not determine the quality of thought by itself.
What matters is the relationship between a learner’s goal and the activity being performed.
This helps explain why the decade’s history is not simply the story of shorter attention spans. It is also a history of more ways to engage with language.
The sentence acquires a picture
For most of the written history of English, a text could contain visual elements, but readers often encountered words in relatively stable arrangements on a page.
Smartphone communication made combinations of text and image increasingly ordinary.
A photo might show what a sentence refers to. A GIF could add humour. An emoji might signal affection, hesitation or sarcasm.
The result is multimodal communication: meaning is created through several kinds of signs together.
This is not entirely new. Illuminated manuscripts combined words and images. Theatre joined dialogue with gesture and movement. Newspapers used cartoons and photographs.
What changed was the speed and ease with which ordinary people could compose such combinations in daily conversations.
A reader now needs to understand how an image can support, alter or contradict a written statement.
That is a genuine literacy skill, not a decorative extra.
What is an emoji?
An emoji is a digital character or character sequence commonly displayed as a picture or symbol.
Emoji traditions were especially important in Japanese mobile communication before they became familiar on smartphones around the world.
The Unicode Consortium explains that Unicode 6.0, released in 2010, incorporated many emoji characters originating in Japanese mobile-carrier sets.
Standardising a character helps different computer systems recognise it, although its visual appearance may vary across platforms.
A smiling face may look slightly different on different devices. A gesture may have different social meanings in different cultures.
This makes emoji a fascinating example of the difference between a coded character and the meaning a reader infers.
A standard can specify the character being transmitted. It cannot guarantee every recipient interprets its emotional force identically.
A smile can mean more than one thing
Consider the same emoji sent after three different sentences.
After Thank you for helping, it might express warmth. After Well, that worked brilliantly, it might express sarcasm. After Are you sure?, it might soften a question.
The symbol has not changed. The surrounding context has.
This is the study of pragmatics: the way language and other signs communicate meaning through social setting, speaker intention and shared understanding.
English speakers were doing this long before smartphones. A person saying Wonderful in a flat voice could mean something very different from a person saying it with enthusiasm.
Digital symbols give writers additional tools, but the old problem remains.
Good communication depends on what the recipient understands, not merely on what the sender intended.
A learner who grasps that difference has learned something useful for every form of English, not only online messaging.
Oxford chooses a picture in 2015
In 2015, Oxford Dictionaries selected the face-with-tears-of-joy emoji as its Word of the Year.
Oxford University Press later explained that the choice reflected the prominence of emoji in digital communication, using evidence from usage data.
The decision was striking because the chosen item was not a word spelled in ordinary alphabetic letters.
Did it mean the English language had stopped using words? Of course not.
It meant that the public communication environment had expanded, and a visual symbol could become prominent enough to reveal something about how people were expressing meaning.
The distinction is important. A dictionary or language organisation may use an annual selection to highlight a cultural phenomenon rather than to declare that every other expression is obsolete.
Historical linguists should treat a Word of the Year as evidence of public attention and editorial judgment, not as a complete measurement of everything said that year.
It is an engaging signpost within a much larger language system.
Selfie: a familiar word becomes a cultural landmark
In 2013, Oxford selected selfie as its Word of the Year.
The noun refers to a self-portrait photograph, commonly taken using a smartphone or similar device.
Oxford’s analysis reported a dramatic increase in the term’s use during that year.
The word is a useful example of how vocabulary travels. A relatively informal expression can spread through communities, attract widespread attention and enter dictionaries.
But first major recognition is not necessarily invention.
A term may have circulated earlier in smaller networks. Historical evidence can reveal those prior uses.
This is the same principle that matters when investigating Shakespeare or the earliest known English inscription: the first example researchers find is not always the first example anyone produced.
Digital archives give lexicographers more material to examine, but the distinction remains essential.
What is a hashtag actually doing?
A hashtag joins a label with a convention that allows related posts or discussions to be grouped and found more easily.
It is partly a linguistic expression and partly a function of the platform on which it appears.
A short phrase may identify a topic, express solidarity, introduce a joke or signal participation in a wider conversation.
The same letters can therefore act as description, searchable label and social action.
That is a remarkable combination of older language purposes within a newer technological convention.
A reader needs to know both what the phrase means and why the writer chose to attach it to a particular message.
A hashtag can help coordinate information across large groups. It can also be used to manipulate attention or present misleading claims.
The technology magnifies the effects of language rather than guaranteeing that those effects are beneficial.
Words move through networks, not on a schedule
A new expression may begin in a small group, enter an online community, appear in entertainment and later be recognised by people who never saw its earliest use.
Some terms lose popularity after a few months. Others become everyday vocabulary.
This is a familiar linguistic process accelerated by digital distribution.
Languages have always adopted innovations through contact. In earlier centuries, trade, travel, print and broadcasting created networks of varying reach.
Social platforms can connect users across enormous distances and expose a term to large audiences very quickly.
But high visibility does not guarantee that a word will remain common.
A language contains both durable forms and temporary fashions.
A good dictionary editor must therefore ask whether the available evidence demonstrates a meaningful new usage and how that usage has developed.
The reader’s job is to understand the word in its actual context.
Social media creates unusual kinds of authority
A short post by someone with no formal publishing background may be seen by many people. A long scholarly explanation may reach far fewer readers.
Popularity and credibility are different properties.
An engaging statement can attract attention because it is surprising, humorous or emotionally provocative. That does not establish that it is supported by reliable evidence.
This distinction became increasingly important as online platforms rewarded rapid sharing and engagement.
A reader should ask who made a claim, what evidence supports it and whether the presentation omits necessary qualifications.
Those questions would sound familiar to historians studying ancient accounts of war or printers debating the reliability of books.
The medium has changed, but readers still need to distinguish assertion from proof.
Digital English has made that ancient obligation more immediate in daily life.
A character limit can change the shape of a claim
Some digital platforms place constraints on message length or presentation.
Writers respond by compressing information, choosing abbreviations or splitting a longer argument into multiple pieces.
Compression can be elegant. A brief sentence may be memorable and clear.
But it can also remove important conditions. A scientific statement shortened to a slogan may lose the uncertainty that made the original accurate.
A reader of a short message therefore needs to recognise what is missing as well as what is present.
This is a demanding form of comprehension. The message may be grammatically straightforward yet incomplete as evidence.
A strong writer knows when concision helps and when additional explanation is required.
The same principle applies to formal examinations: a short answer should be focused, not so compressed that it fails to justify its claim.
English in a world of online video
Streaming and video-sharing platforms expanded the amount of spoken English available to viewers in many regions.
A learner could hear lectures, interviews, comedy, music discussions and different regional accents without travelling to the places where the speakers lived.
Subtitles and transcripts could help connect spoken sounds with written words.
But spoken comprehension involves more than recognising a vocabulary list.
Speakers reduce sounds, use rhythm and intonation, interrupt one another, refer to shared experiences and sometimes change the subject abruptly.
A video adds visual context, which can help comprehension but also distract from the wording.
The listener needs to decide what information is central and what is merely entertaining or incidental.
The decade made language learning resources far more accessible for many users, while leaving the underlying task of understanding intact.
Why accents became easier to encounter
For much of the history of English, a person might hear a relatively limited range of accents in everyday life.
Broadcasting widened that exposure in the twentieth century. Online video, podcasts and live calls expanded it further.
A student in Singapore could hear English speakers from Britain, North America, India, Australia, Nigeria and elsewhere with increasing ease.
That is valuable because English has never belonged to only one spoken accent.
Different varieties may have their own vowel patterns, rhythms, familiar expressions and pragmatic conventions.
A listener benefits from learning to follow meaning across those differences rather than assuming unfamiliar pronunciation is a sign of inferior English.
Still, mutual understanding can require adjustment. A speaker addressing an international audience may choose clearer wording or explain local references.
The goal is intelligibility and appropriate register, not pretending that all accents are identical.
Singapore English online
In Singapore, English continued to be used across education, workplaces and everyday digital communication, alongside Malay, Mandarin, Tamil and other languages and varieties.
A single person might write a formal school email, chat with friends using local colloquial expressions and read a technical guide in an international standard register.
These shifts are not evidence of having three separate personalities. They reflect the ability to adapt language to audience and social setting.
Standard Singapore English has important roles in formal institutions and written communication. Colloquial Singapore English, commonly called Singlish, carries social meanings and patterns associated with local multilingual life.
Online conversation can move between them rapidly.
Good language teaching helps learners understand when each kind of expression is useful, and why formal assessments ask for particular conventions.
It need not ridicule local speech to teach strong formal English.
Does code-switching damage grammar?
No. Switching among languages or varieties does not automatically mean that a speaker lacks a grammatical system.
Code-switching can be highly structured, involving choices connected with topic, relationship and social identity.
There are, of course, situations in which a speaker needs to use an agreed formal standard so a wider audience can understand.
The relevant skill is control: knowing what meaning is required, who will read or hear the message and which form is appropriate.
A learner may need explicit teaching to write a formal essay well. The existence of informal speech does not prevent that learning.
Conversely, an excellent examination essay does not necessarily equip someone to navigate every subtle social exchange.
The decade’s digital communication makes the value of flexible language competence especially clear.
The word ‘post-truth’ signals a trust problem
Oxford chose post-truth as its 2016 Word of the Year, reflecting public discussion about situations in which emotion and belief can outweigh objective facts in shaping opinion.
The term’s prominence does not mean factual disagreement began in 2016. Human societies have always faced propaganda, rumours and contested narratives.
What changed was the visibility and speed of some forms of communication through online networks.
The reader’s challenge was to separate evidence from persuasive presentation.
A text can be grammatically correct and still make an unsupported claim. It can use precise vocabulary while omitting crucial context.
Strong English comprehension therefore includes evaluation of evidence and intention, not merely identification of sentence parts.
This will become even more important when AI systems begin generating fluent text for users.
The danger of equating new slang with ignorance
People often worry when younger speakers use unfamiliar expressions.
A new word may be confusing to someone outside the community that uses it, but unfamiliarity does not automatically make it meaningless or badly constructed.
Many accepted English words began as borrowings, adaptations or innovations that older speakers did not immediately welcome.
The relevant questions are what a term means, where it is used and whether the audience can understand it.
A student still needs to know how to write formal Standard English for an examination. That practical requirement does not prove that every informal expression is a linguistic mistake.
Good teachers can explain register without treating the history of language as a battle against change.
English has survived precisely because generations have continued adapting it.
The goal is not to stop change. It is to help learners navigate it intelligently.
How lexicographers followed the digital world
Oxford University Press explains that contemporary lexicographers increasingly study large collections of real-language evidence, including material from digital sources.
A term’s frequency is useful but does not answer every question. Editors also examine meanings, social context, date, durability and the breadth of its use.
A dramatic rise in search interest may reflect temporary curiosity rather than long-term adoption.
Conversely, an important word used within a smaller specialist community may remain highly valuable even if it never becomes a public trend.
This is why vocabulary research needs both data and interpretation.
The same is true for a learner. Looking up a word may give a starting definition, but using it well requires seeing how it fits into actual sentences and contexts.
Digital evidence greatly enlarges the available examples.
It does not eliminate the need for judgment.
The smartphone is a library with an attention problem
A phone can give access to dictionaries, research articles, language lessons, audio, books and explanations.
It can also present constant interruptions that encourage a reader to abandon difficult material after a few sentences.
Neither tendency is guaranteed for every user.
The practical question is whether the learner can maintain enough attention to build an understanding of a connected text.
A comprehension passage often requires remembering a claim introduced several paragraphs earlier. A composition requires planning and revising ideas that may not be immediately entertaining.
Fast digital communication can be useful, but sustained work still matters.
The learning task is to use technology as an aid rather than allowing every notification to determine the next thought.
That is an educational problem created by the interaction of human attention with a changing media environment.
A decade that changed the visible shape of writing
2010: Unicode 6.0 incorporated a large set of emoji characters important for cross-platform digital communication.
2013: Oxford selected selfie as Word of the Year after a dramatic increase in public use.
2015: Oxford selected the face-with-tears-of-joy emoji as Word of the Year, recognising the growing prominence of visual signs.
2016: Post-truth became Oxford’s Word of the Year, drawing attention to public concerns about evidence and persuasive language.
Late 2010s: short-form video, hashtags, online discussion and mobile communication increasingly influenced the forms of language people encountered.
These landmarks describe communication settings, not separate inventions of English itself.
Frequently asked questions
Did smartphones change the English language?
They changed the contexts in which English was used, speeding the circulation of messages, images and emerging expressions. English vocabulary and usage continued adapting through familiar processes of innovation and borrowing.
When did emoji become part of Unicode?
Major additions occurred in Unicode 6.0 in 2010, following earlier encoded symbols and long-established Japanese emoji traditions. Further characters and sequences were added in later versions.
What was Oxford’s Word of the Year in 2013?
Selfie, reflecting a term for a self-portrait photograph whose use became far more prominent that year.
Why did Oxford select an emoji in 2015?
It highlighted the importance of visual symbols in contemporary digital communication, not the disappearance of English words or grammar.
Is Singlish the same as formal written English?
No. Colloquial Singapore English and Standard Singapore English have different typical uses and conventions, and speakers may move among them depending on context.
Does social media make every reader less literate?
No single conclusion applies to all users. Digital platforms create both learning opportunities and challenges for attention, source evaluation and sustained reading.
The next chapter: fluent machines enter the conversation
Between 2020 and 2026, the COVID-19 pandemic brought rapid changes in the words people encountered and the ways they studied and worked.
Then large conversational AI systems became widely accessible, making it possible to request essays, summaries, translations and explanations from machines.
The new challenge will be more subtle than unfamiliar slang: if a machine can produce an elegant sentence, how can a reader judge whether the sentence is true, meaningful and appropriate?
Explore the previous chapter, 2000–2010 CE: Search, Wikipedia and the New Reading World, or return to History of English & Language Change for the complete journey.
Sources and further reading
- Unicode Consortium: Unicode Emoji Specification — standardisation, 2010 additions and later emoji development.
- Oxford University Press: Word of the Year, Defining the Past Twenty Years — selfie, emoji, digital culture and language evidence.
- Oxford University Press: The Evolving Role of a Lexicographer — how online language enters lexicographic research.
- Unicode: Emoji Versions and Sources — dated reference data for character releases.
- SETC: World Englishes and Variation — differences among communities, registers and spoken varieties.