What effect does digital communication have on language change, according to the material?

• A. It reduces the use of slang and emojis in writing.
• B. It speeds up diffusion of slang, abbreviations, emojis, and informal spellings across large populations.
• C. It stabilizes spelling across generations.
• D. It limits language change to small communities.

Answer: (B)

Digital communication speeds up the diffusion of slang, abbreviations, emojis, and informal spellings across large populations. When people connect online—across platforms, countries, and communities— linguistic innovations can spread rapidly from one group to many others, becoming widely adopted far beyond their place of origin. This accelerates language change and broadens its reach, rather than keeping it local or stabilizing how people spell things. The other ideas don’t fit because they imply reduced use of informal features, or a stabilizing across generations, or a confinement of change to small communities, all of which contrasts with the global, rapid diffusion that digital networks enable.