“There is a need to rethink linguistic communication in a world that has become increasingly interconnected”

Blommaert

Computer-mediated communication has affected literacy and social practices in different ways. Today, I would like to reflect on its influence on multilingualism in our daily lives. Digital media offers a privileged scenario to observe multilingual experiences of communication and social networks must be seen as important sites of contemporary multilingual practice in a globalised and mediatised world (Jonsson&Mhonen, 2014). However, CMC social networks are still an under explored area of multilingual practice (Androutsopoulos, 2013, Jonsson&Muhonen, 2014).

Digital social networks portray new ways of written communication in different languages, where fluid and flexible relations between language, ethnicity and place occur (Andoutsopoulos, 2013). For instance, we can observe multilingual conversations in Facebook groups of foreigners, like this group of international students in Madrid (https://www.facebook.com/groups/538203699670689/?fref=ts), where posts are written either in Spanish or English, with commentaries in both languages too.

What about our own Facebook Wall? How do we express ourselves in it using different languages? And why do we do it? As we know, language is never “just language” and we perform identity through language practice, but, what identity aspects do we perform through multilingual communication in our Facebook? Apparently, writing multilingually projects a “glocal” identity (Jonsson&Muhonen, 2014) as it demonstrates the participants’ flexibility with languaging and the diversity of cultural discourses to which they orient (Androutsopoulos, 2013).

Nevertheless, this is not a simple issue. After some days asking different foreign people (who have not grown up in an English speaking country) if they write in English on their Facebook, I have come across some answers like the one of my Chilean roommate (who lives in NY only after some months) who said that for him: “It’s retarded to write in English on Facebook”. We would then have to be careful when considering what writing in English on Facebook indexes. Depending on the context it can index certain status (as Andoutsopoulous (2013) suggests), but in other contexts it can index snobbishness and can be considered inappropriate.

When considering multilingual practices in digital social networks, we can also think about how cultural production can be changed and renewed (Jonsson&Muhonen, 2014), and how new “languages” can be created by networkers as they exploit literacy repertoires (Androutsopoulous, 2013). Some online international uses of English can be highly codified, requiring certain knowledge to understand them, for example the “language of video games” and the “language to buy drugs online”. We can even see how some concrete networks create their own “language”, for example the platform Grindr (a gay social network), where symbols and acronyms are generally used:

TOP (active), BTTM (passive), PNP or parTy (party and play= only sex with drugs), host or travel? (having/not having a place to have sex), BB/RAW (sex without protection),  NSA (no strings attached= not looking for a relationship), gen (generous= looks for people who pay him), hung (well-endowed man), and emojis:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byt0ACdF5YBScTBqaU95cUdZSnc/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byt0ACdF5YBSdDFoMzFqRWhmVEU/view?usp=sharing

Multilingual practices in digital social networks can even be considered among speakers of the same language. This can be seen on Facebook groups of humor in Spanish, where it is common to find language discussions about how a word is said differently in different Spanish speaking countries. This is mocked in a youtube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xyp7xt-ygy0, where most of the commentaries discuss this too.

“There is a need to rethink linguistic communication in a world that has become increasingly interconnected”

Blommaert

Computer-mediated communication has affected literacy and social practices in different ways. Today, I would like to reflect on its influence on multilingualism in our daily lives. Digital media offers a privileged scenario to observe multilingual experiences of communication and social networks must be seen as important sites of contemporary multilingual practice in a globalised and mediatised world (Jonsson&Mhonen, 2014). However, CMC social networks are still an under explored area of multilingual practice (Androutsopoulos, 2013, Jonsson&Muhonen, 2014).

Digital social networks portray new ways of written communication in different languages, where fluid and flexible relations between language, ethnicity and place occur (Andoutsopoulos, 2013). For instance, we can observe multilingual conversations in Facebook groups of foreigners, like this group of international students in Madrid (https://www.facebook.com/groups/538203699670689/?fref=ts), where posts are written either in Spanish or English, with commentaries in both languages too.

What about our own Facebook Wall? How do we express ourselves in it using different languages? And why do we do it? As we know, language is never “just language” and we perform identity through language practice, but, what identity aspects do we perform through multilingual communication in our Facebook? Apparently, writing multilingually projects a “glocal” identity (Jonsson&Muhonen, 2014) as it demonstrates the participants’ flexibility with languaging and the diversity of cultural discourses to which they orient (Androutsopoulos, 2013).

Nevertheless, this is not a simple issue. After some days asking different foreign people (who have not grown up in an English speaking country) if they write in English on their Facebook, I have come across some answers like the one of my Chilean roommate (who lives in NY only after some months) who said that for him: “It’s retarded to write in English on Facebook”. We would then have to be careful when considering what writing in English on Facebook indexes. Depending on the context it can index certain status (as Andoutsopoulous (2013) suggests), but in other contexts it can index snobbishness and can be considered inappropriate.

When considering multilingual practices in digital social networks, we can also think about how cultural production can be changed and renewed (Jonsson&Muhonen, 2014), and how new “languages” can be created by networkers as they exploit literacy repertoires (Androutsopoulous, 2013). Some online international uses of English can be highly codified, requiring certain knowledge to understand them, for example the “language of video games” and the “language to buy drugs online”. We can even see how some concrete networks create their own “language”, for example the platform Grindr (a gay social network), where symbols and acronyms are generally used:

TOP (active), BTTM (passive), PNP or parTy (party and play= only sex with drugs), host or travel? (having/not having a place to have sex), BB/RAW (sex without protection),  NSA (no strings attached= not looking for a relationship), gen (generous= looks for people who pay him), hung (well-endowed man), and emojis:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byt0ACdF5YBScTBqaU95cUdZSnc/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byt0ACdF5YBSdDFoMzFqRWhmVEU/view?usp=sharing

Multilingual practices in digital social networks can even be considered among speakers of the same language. This can be seen on Facebook groups of humor in Spanish, where it is common to find language discussions about how a word is said differently in different Spanish speaking countries. This is mocked in a youtube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xyp7xt-ygy0, where most of the commentaries discuss this too.