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Many things have an effect on language: war, the merging or two cultures, and technology are many common factors of change. If you think of the way that English has changed in the last several decades, nothing has effected English more than technology.
Email and instant messaging were some of the first technological advances that had an impact on English. With email and instant messaging came emoticons and word abbreviations. Abbreviations of popular words and phrases have been around for centuries, but never in such abundance as with email and instant messaging. Another impact that email and instant messaging had on English was the addition of pictures and graphics into common communication. Smilies and graphics like roses made with the keys of a keyboard became a common occurrence in email and instant messaging. Many languages evolved to no longer require symbols as more of the population became literate. However, as written word was corresponded over the internet, meaning and jokes had the potential to be obscured so graphics were created to make emotion more easily detected through written word.
Text messaging has furthered the changes in English. Text messaging has a been a widely popular technology that limits what one person can say to another by imposing length limits per text message sent. More abbriviations and graphics have been added to provide a way for people to write more in a smaller space of text.
English as a language has not seen changes like the ones being seen today since the printing press was invented and if the changes of the last couple of decades are any indication the language is bound to keep changing.
