This paper investigates the impact of social media exposure on Malaysian university students’ academic

WhatsApp can boost confidence, grammatical awareness, and access to learning materials, yet also

acknowledge that informal habits hinder formal writing. The study highlights that educators can mitigate these

negative effects by integrating social media into structured academic activities, providing continuous feedback,

and monitoring student writing practices. Ultimately, effective guidance can transform social media from a

distraction into a supportive tool for academic writing development.

how they communicate but also how they express themselves in writing. Platforms such as Facebook,

WhatsApp, and Twitter have introduced a culture of brevity, informality, and abbreviation, where slang

Malaysian university students, in particular, face this issue as they navigate between social media

communication and academic expectations. Although some perceive social media as helpful for building

confidence and increasing grammatical awareness, others admit that it reinforces casual writing styles

unsuitable for academic contexts. This duality necessitates critical examination of how social media influences

writing practices. Moreover, it calls for educators to identify practical strategies—such as structured

integration of social platforms, scaffolding, and regular feedback—to help students balance both worlds

effectively.

media language in academic writing?

This paper is a qualitative paper that relies mainly on a thorough review of existing literature. Relevant

information, peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers, and other scholarly works were sourced from

academic databases using keywords related to AI-based speech coaching, presentation anxiety, and ESL

learning. The literature was then examined thematically to uncover common patterns. This process helps to

build a deeper understanding of the topic and provides a foundation for answering the research questions posed

in this study.

Malaysian university students frequently use informal language from social media, such as slang and

language. Recent studies have explored how the media affects writing among students in both positive and

negative aspects. While some researchers argue that social media can be useful when applied under proper

supervision (Mirza, et al., 2022), much of the existing literature emphasizes on detrimental effects, particularly

on academic writing.

The negative impact of excessive social media exposure on academic writing is that students' ability to use

formal academic writing is deteriorating. This happens because habitual use of social media has led students to

become accustomed to using informal abbreviated language such as “u”, “b4”, and “gr8” (Omoera et al., 2018;

be weak, resulting in incompetence in formal writing (Savitri, 2018; Bovill, 2010 as cited in Nutakor and

Israel, 2023).

perspective was offered by Hamat and Hassan (2019), who affirmed that social media can improve students’

grammar and help their listening and speaking skills.

social media has led students to be lazy in writing; as a result, they are unable to gain long-term knowledge,

which is important for students (Guardaquivil and Matalines, 2023; Nanda and Panda, 2024). However, Crystal

(2008) as cited in Asare et al., (2022) argues that with frequent writing even though just a short post can boost

writing confidence and fluency overtime and 66.0% (60) respondent had agreed that English writing can be

improved by interacting in social media (Hashim et al., 2018 as cited in Azlan and Yunus, 2020).

habit. According to several studies, Malaysian university students perceive that social networking sites (SNSs)

can be helpful for them to write better in English. Afendi and Haslinda (2019) discovered that 97.4% of 6804

their academic writing. Arif and Tasnim (2024) found that students inadvertently employed informal linguistic

elements such as acronyms and slang in their academic writing. Although they changed their language to suit

the context, many acknowledge the importance of informal habits. These findings are also supported by Mirza

et al., (2022), who found that 86% of students perceived that their WhatsApp texting habits negatively affect

their academics due to grammar and spelling mistakes, and 78% of students acknowledged that they ignored

the mistakes when texting. In line with these, social media is also perceived to affect students’ academics,

especially in writing and speaking skills, and lead to unhealthy usage patterns (Nanda & Panda, 2024).

Interestingly, some studies emphasize both positive and negative perceptions. According to Guardaquivil and

Matalines (2023), they found that students loved the way social media helps them in increasing their

grammatical awareness, access to materials, and writing confidence. At the same time, they raised concerns

language learning can be facilitated by creating interesting interactive learning environments that are parked on

platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Wikis. In fact, these findings reaffirm the capacity and suitability of

social media to serve as a useful platform for academic writing language development when managed

effectively by teachers (Amin et al., 2020; Haidari et al., 2020; Guardaquivil & Matalines, 2023; Asafo-Adjei

et al., 2023; Shahzadi &Kausar, 2020).

Teachers, who are also known to be major players in using Wikis and social media to develop students'

academic writing, should take advantage of using them to enhance engagement and provide efficient feedback.

AlMarwani (2020); Shahzadi and Kausar (2020) emphasized that through collaborative group assignments and

learning on social media like Facebook, it enables students to actively learn from their teachers and peers. This

allows students to be argumentative and share their perspective and develop content knowledge, vocabulary

technology platforms such as Google Classroom. Similarly, Asafo-Adjei, R. et al. (2023) added that quality

feedback from teachers allows students to stay alert to the solecisms made due to the negative influence of

social media. Therefore, paired with teachers’ close monitoring and scaffolded feedback on students’ posts,

social media supports students' writing academically (AlMarwani, 2020; Asafo-Adjei et al., 2023; Shahzadi &

Kausar, 2020).

Based on the literature review, there are several crucial points that can be highlighted as important findings that

also serve as answers to the research questions raised in this paper. There are several key findings on the

relationship between social media use and academic writing among Malaysian university students. Overall,

students frequently adopt informal language from social media, such as slang and abbreviations, which

6. Azlan, N. A. B., & Md Yunus, M. (2020). Undergraduates student perceptions of social networking sites to