i imagine that reading social media posts in another language could be a bizarrely difficult for speakers who learned in a formal educational setting. aka students who were taught only w/ material that used proper grammar, didn’t use slang or abbr., had no spelling mistakes, etc
across all culture, moving from a formal to casual setting = a change in the stringency of the ‘rules’ of language. rules which are very volatile to begin with. language in real world usage leaves so many rndm choices to the whimsy & discretion of the speaker. plus social media means written casual language is evolving in pursuit of function. even in my native language i’m constantly being exposed to new styles of expression.
language is a living thing. but it’s something we make, not some inorganic designed structure. written ‘rules’ aren’t really rules. they’re our attempt to take a snapshot of how we were at a particular moment in time. language is amorphous & constantly in motion; it’s always going to be blurry.
language is never pure. there’s no such thing as pure. and i think that’s damn nifty.