Turning Away from the vast Horizon: In-group Preferences as a Reflection of Language and Genre

     Facebook and other social networking sites have begun to develop their own posting genres, conventions and ideas inherent in particular texts(van Luyn, 2015). Such posts are essentially a modified diary, using the everyday language of the poster and returning to the older mode of shared diaries(McNeill). Though social networks are a shared medium, and is spread among many social groups and cultures, “in-group favouritism -the tendency to favour members of one’s own group over those in other groups-”(Everett, J et al. 2015) are maintained through these genres and language use instead of the common idea that the internet allows the break down of social barriers.

    The conventions of various genres can make it difficult for outsiders to join various communities, online or not, due to the idiosyncratic use of language in the various groups. The use of slang, contractions and other modifications to language can create a dialect that other groups cannot understand even if they are nominally speaking the same language, let alone between languages. The power relationships between dialects influence group membership and social standing, which is shown in prestige. This a sociolinguistic term about the social import given to certain language use, such as the Singaporean divide between Singlish and English(Wong, 2015) . This also reinforces the ties within groups and the separation between them, mostly because the discourses in communities can become an important part of a person's self image.

Slang can be indecipherable to outsiders

   This the main reason I am looking at Facebook, as well as other similar sites like Google+, as the way people present themselves online is greatly influenced by their background, the way they want to be seen by others and to maintain group membership , which feeds into the genre and discourses they use in their posts. This is why many people who pretend to belong to groups they are not part of, such as a different ethnicity, gender or sexuality are often discovered as they will often only have an outsiders perspective on the in-group discourses and will often reveal such. Often to pretend to be part of a group only works outside the group you are imitating.

References

Anonymous(2015). Prestige (sociolinguistics). Retrieved from http://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Prestige%20%28sociolinguistics%29&item_type=topic

Everett, J., Faber, N., & Crockett, M. (2015, February 13). Preferences and beliefs in ingroup favoritism. Retrieved August 14, 2015, from http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00015/full

McNeill, L. (n.d.). Diary 2.0? A Genre Moves from Page to Screen. In C. Rowe & E. Wyss (Eds.), Language and New Media: Linguistic, Cultural and Technological Evolutions (pp. 313-325). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

van Luyn, A(2015). BA1002 Week 3 lecture notes [pdf] retrieved from

Wong, T. (2015, August 6). The rise of Singlish - BBC News. Retrieved August 14, 2015, from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33809914

Image Reference

Anonymous (2002). fo shizzle ma nizzle Retrieved from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fo%27+shizzle+my+nizzle