Changing dialects.

In today's modern world we often discuss the development of technology and science. Something we do not often discuss is the development and changes in dialects and language. People who are not from England expect everyone here to speak with received pronunciation (posh) or cockney accents. This is definitely not the case anymore for many reasons.

Dialect leveling is a term used when local variation become less distinct and take on features of other dialects/sociolects. This has become common in recent years because of geographical mobility. This often because of peoples work or family living in different places. With everyone moving around all the time we mix with more people meaning that our dialects combine. This leads to peoples dialects not being from their place of origin. Another reason is social mobility As there has been a breakdown of the strict divides between social classes we now mix with all types of social classes and therefore our dialects combine. There are people who speak with RP and people who have rural dialects mixing daily.
Even if we do not have a large geographical mobility, our update in technology also leads us to being more open to other dialects. This can be through YouTube, Radio/TV shows,internet videos and music. By spending our time watching a lot of videos that contain different dialects we may begin to develop features of these dialects.
Do you sound more like your parents or friends? It is common for young people to pronounce words like their friends do and not how parents would. This is because there is now a pressure for young people to conform to  norms including linguistics. A lot of young peoples language develops from rap music where you can hear how the musician pronunciation of words and so they then use this themselves.
With all these ways of mixing with new people from different places our dialects often now do not link to our place of origin. We have a mixture of dialects and often change how we speak depending on who we are speaking to.