Implicit learning and social media

A while ago I noticed something happening on my children's Facebook accounts (which I carefully monitor).  Despite my having merely logged them on to the format, they had rapidly acquired a new way of writing, a 'syntax' if you like (though I do realise the controversy about whether I should really call it this).  For example, they began using a *correction marker for a previous spelling mistake.  This got me thinking about my own social media use.  I have been very inspired, not least by @deevybee, to 'spread the word' of Twitter amongst colleagues as a breakthrough in academic (and for some friends, commercial) resources. I have run research workshops @citylcs on how to use Twitter effectively and have had numerous conversations with colleagues about its potential.  But how do I even know how to use Twitter and other forms of social media?  I have never been on a university training course.  I have not read a Twitter manual.  But I have spent long enough on Twitter to implicitly learn some of the rules.  Like most social environments, there are formal rules and informal ones.  For example, the hash tag 'official' function is easy to explain - it's a cataloguing or tagging system that hooks you quickly into the topic of interest e.g., #slpeeps which is a well used tag in speech and language therapy.  However hash tags such as #shouldntreallyadmitthatoutloud clearly have a different pragmatic function.  Authors of these hashtags are under no illusion that someone will search for this term, or that there are other people using it.  Instead it acts as a sort of Shakespearean aside.

I only know this because I have observed it occurring and have implicitly extracted this 'rule'.   
It got me thinking that degree of implicit learning skill might be related to social media use.  To my knowledge, and following a quick and not at all comprehensive search of the literature, this specific link has not really been investigated.  But it would explain a couple of bits of anecdotal evidence: Firstly, in general, older folk are much less inclined to take up my enthusiasm for Twitter  - is this because they have poorer implicit learning?  Maybe, but mainly because they are not willing to spend enough time on social media to learn the rules, and without these rules, Twitter doesn't make much sense. So a circularity is created. Similarly, some friends appear to have taken much longer to pick up the conventions, and have needed the rules to be more explicitly outlined than others. Second, there is increasing evidence that people with language impairment are not particularly helped by new media such as texts and emails. This may be circumstantial evidence in support of some prominent theories around procedural or implicit learning difficulties in people with SLI. 

So social media, and perhaps Twitter in particular, is not only a great resource in itself, it also offers a potential window into the emergence of new implicit social and 'language' rules and for exploring which skills and difficulties are most reflected in this 'Brave New Media'.