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HI-LING

LINGUISTICS IN THE HIGH SCHOOL

UNIT 2: VIOLATION OF MAXIMS

Lesson 3: Youth Language and Social Media

Definition: Youth language has been heavily influenced by social media over the last couple of years and it continues to do so. Not only social media platforms like Instagram, Youtube, TikTok or TV-series have been influencing and shaping the language of the young, but also the contribution of emojis to written conversation have changed the way of communicating online.

Key Concepts

  • CMC

  • New conventions of youth language

  • Exclusivity

  • Emojis

  • Emotionalization

  • Function of compensation

UNIT 1: Youth Language and Social Media

In the times of digitality youth language has been influenced and spread by social media. The kind of language that people use when communicating with each other with a device-mediated communication is called CMC (computer-mediated communication). The sharing, liking and commenting of posts on social media, e.g. Instagram, forms just as much a part of youth language as speech economic abbreviations, emojis and acronyms. Through social media the typically playful use of the language becomes apparent through the youth language used on social media platforms. Two examples of a written abbreviation are: Ly (=Love you) and How r u? (= How are you?). The two mentioned phenomena give the idea that social media chat histories, e.g. WhatsApp, work like a verbal conversation. There are many other examples which are typical for youth language. Writings in all capital letters is a popular writing style, which represent loud speaking or even yelling (e.g. STOP IT). Due to the spread of youth language in social media, innovative vocabulary is consolidated online in shorter phases. Through that new conventions regularly emerge which are consolidated periodically. An example would be the use of memes and catchphrases from TV-shows which are embedded into daily conversations. Another typical characteristic of youth language is that of exclusivity, whereby exclusivity focuses on topics and subjects which, from a youthful point of view, are worthy of being posted, e.g. the changing of a relationship status, experiences at school, successes/wins in sport, journeys, etc

Exercise 1: Discussion

Discuss about memes in pairs of two. Which memes can you think of? Do you use any of these expressions also in a daily/verbal conversation?

Einheit 2: Emojis

The emotionalization is a typical characteristic for youth language and the communication on social media. The excessive expression of emotions is often portrayed through e.g. the use of emojis. Additionally, emojis are often ascribed the function of compensation, since they are used to reproduce mimical information, which cannot be expressed in a written form. Emojis are therefore for the language in a social media context what gestures are for verbal communication. The term «Emoji», which is derived from the Japanese, has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary and is defined as follows: «A small digital image or icon used to express an idea, emotion, etc., in electronic communications.» The first Emojis were developed in 1999 by Shigetaka Kurita, a Japanese artist. He wanted to create an easy way to send information through the interface of a Japanese mobile internet platform. Swiftly, the integration of emojis was widely accepted in Japan and soon integrated worldwide into Unicode. Unicode means that the e.g. emojis were designed in a consistent way on a global level so that every mobile phone user had the same options to choose from. However, emojis do not belong to one specific language but rather are translingual and transnational. Moreover there are no rules on how emojis are to be used. Emojis usually appear at the end of a text chunk and play a big role in creating emotional meaning. The language of emojis is very individualistic and thus, it is difficult to ascribe the exact meaning of an emoji. The understanding of emojis is also influenced by the emoji community which surrounds one on a personal, regional and international level.

Exercise 2:

Which meaning do these emojis have for you? First work alone and write down your definition of the emojis. When you’re done discuss with your classmates and exchange/compare your interpretations with each other. Discuss how your understanding of the emojis might differ from that of a 45-year old person.

Emoji 1: 🙃 Emoji 2: 💀 Emoji 3: 😭 Emoji 4: 🙄 Emoji 5: 😇 Emoji 6: 💞 Emoji 7: 😉 Emoji 8: 😰 1) sarcastic/provoking smile/dry humour 2) laughing 3) crying in a sad way or in an ironic way 4) annoyed 5) happy 6) sending love/feeling connected 7) not to be taken seriously 8) starting to sweat/being scared

Final thought for this lesson:

Social media platforms help the quick spread of youth language online. Through this process specific youth language terms become fixed all over the world. Furthermore, emojis play a huge part in emotionalizing youth language. Though they serve as a worldwide language, they can have a different meaning for everyone depending on one’s environment.

Sources

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Pictures

https://www.midjourneyai.ai/app

https://picsart.com/it/ 

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