SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE AZERBAIJANI LANGUAGE: EMERGING TRENDS IN YOUTH COMMUNICATION

Social media is a principal environment in which young Azerbaijanis produce and evaluate language. Instagram, TikTok, Telegram, YouTube, and messaging applications encourage rapid, informal, multimodal interaction, affecting vocabulary, spelling, style, and language choice. Through a qualitative review of sociolinguistic research and recurrent patterns in public online discourse, this article examines borrowing, code-switching, orthographic simplification, abbreviations, expressive spelling, and emojis. These practices show creativity and adaptation, but unstable spelling, borrowing, and weak register awareness may affect standard writing. A balanced response should combine digital literacy, accessible terminology resources, and attractive Azerbaijani-language content. Social media is not replacing Azerbaijani; it is creating a dynamic digital register whose long-term influence depends on education, technology, and users' choices.