The objective of this paper is to analyze how, and to what extent, English has an impact on the Croatian language. The basic starting point in the paper is that language is an open system complemented by foreign words. Apart from being a means of communication and a symbolic means of expressing national identity, language is the concern of linguists whose task is, among other things, to preserve the language from foreign influence. The initial hypothesis in the paper is that young people show the greatest openness to the use of English. Therefore, the survey, as the chosen method of data collection, was conducted among young people. Therefore, the questionnaire, as the chosen method of data collection, was conducted among young people aged 15 to 31 years. The online questionnaire was performed in the period from September 1, 2020 to September 15, 2020. The research was conducted on a sample of 110 respondents. The results of the survey confirmed the frequent use of English and lack of interest in creating new Croatian words. The results also showed that young people do not feel the need to find replacements with Croatian expressions for English words that do not have Croatian equivalents. It can also be clearly seen that a large number of respondents are not aware of the use of English in everyday speech among peers as well as in their household, which shows that English words increasingly suppress Croatian equivalents. The conclusion of our research is that the development of technology is accompanied by a growing gap between the efforts of linguists to preserve the purity of the Croatian language and the language practice of young people on social networks. The conclusion of the research is that young people do not perceive the purity of language as a key element of their identity and that the trend of adopting English, which keeps pace with technological progress, has created a growing barrier between generations which might be hard to overcome.