Genders Patterns on Facebook: A Jordanian Sociolinguistic Perspective (original) (raw)

Gender-Associated Behavior of Jordanians on Facebook

International Journal of English Linguistics

Lack of sex-disaggregated data on internet and mobile phone access are among the key barriers to measure the progress in development goals that call for gender equality in access to the internet. Objective: The present study aims to investigate the language features that are used by females and males’ friends when posting on their timelines on Facebook. The present study has employed cross-sectional design by collecting a sample of 270 randomly selected Facebook profiles using SurveyMonkey. Chi-square analysis has been used to analyze the conceptual framework. The study has found that the behavior of female users was much higher towards the communication features, language features, and social behavior as compared to the behavior of male users. The study enlarged into the understanding of Facebook as an online platform from the perspectives of Jordanian users. The study confirms the popularity of Facebook as an outlet of psychological and social expression for gender-associate...

A Computerized Analysis of Gender Linguistic Patterns as Reflected in Jordanians' Facebook Statuses

2018, 2017

Facebook has revolutionized the way people share information and use language which has the potential to mark individual and collective identity. This makes exploring patterns in language use of a paramount significance. One conventional marker of what is being expressed and how is the word used in writing. Focusing on the used words, this study aims at exploring the potential distinguishing patterns in language used by Jordanian male and female authors of self-generated Facebook-status texts. Data were collected from a purposive sample by means of the 'social network' model, and then categorized and analyzed statistically using eclectic computerized (stylometric and online automated) analysis tools, including LIWC. Results demonstrated the impact of gender on discriminating language patterns and, thus, might facilitate gender specific status-predictability. Men and women wrote their statuses in statistically different ways. Women exhibited higher frequency of use of (social) lexical items, first person and second person pronouns, and optimistic/'upbeat' tone. Men's statuses revealed more third person pronouns, positive affect and clout in their writing. Geopolitical and sport theme-related words characterized male-authored themes and male semantic orientation. This study emphasizes the value of linguistic work with focus on resources used in social media to mirror themes, affect, tone, clout and more. It also provides implications for (electronic) discourse analysis, text/corpus analysis, sociolinguistics and forensic linguistics.

The Impact of Culture and Gender on the Production of Online Speech Acts among Jordanian Facebook Users

International Journal of Arabic-English Studies, 2019

This study of speech acts offers deep insights into the social structure and gender differences of any speech community. Most relevant research on online speech acts has shed much light on Western speech communities, neglecting the speech act behavior of Arabic speaking communities. This study aimed to examine the influence of gender differences and the Jordanian cultural norms on the use of speech acts in Facebook Status Updates (FSUs). A total of 1718 FSUs were collected over a period of 2 months. Then, they were categorized according to Searle’s speech acts taxonomy. Results showed that women made an average of 6 updates to their Facebook status, while men averaged four. In addition, the results revealed that females and males differ in their linguistic repertoires. Male participants were inclined to use more assertive speech acts, whereas females were more likely to use expressive speech acts. Islam and tribalism are factors that were found to play an important role in defining ...

Facebook as a Mode of Communication among Jordanian University Students

English Language and Literature Studies, 2016

This study aims at investigating the Facebook language in terms of content and form as used by Jordanian university students from a sociolinguistic perspective. It also attempts to examine the effect of the sociolinguistic factors such as sex and religion. Moreover, this study seeks to throw light upon the types of linguistic choices employed by the students and to figure out the motivations behind using this form of writing. The data were collected by means of interviews. In addition, the researcher collected some data and messages from students’ profiles after taking their permission. The findings of this study showed that there are certain linguistic features and functions used in the Facebook language. Besides, the major argument developed in such a study is that the language used in the Facebook has some peculiarities which distinguish it from other forms of language. Furthermore, it was quite noticeable that the language of Facebook appears to be conditioned by sociological fa...

Sociolinguistic Perspective of Gender Patterns on Facebook

2019

The purpose of this research is to look for the differences and similarities among the way sexes use internet particularly social networking site, Facebook. The differences exist on multiple levels and all these have been exhibited through language and the choices they make. The findings show that women mostly write about themselves, about their own emotions, andthe way a female leaves all information blank and a male give all for public display certainly speaks volumes about their privacy concerns

(Im) Politeness and Gender in the Arabic Discourse of Social Media Network Websites: Facebook as a Norm

The present study aims to investigate the differences and similarities in the ways men and women use (im)politeness strategies in communicating "online" in the Arabic discourse of social media network websites like Facebook as well as the role of the topic the interlocutors talk about in the use of (im)politeness strategies. In addition, the study investigates the differences between the men-men, women-women, women-men communication in the Arabic discourse of social media network website, Facebook. For the purposes of this study, a corpus of online Arabic texts were collected from some public web pages of the most popular TV show programs on some of the most well-liked social media network websites such as Facebook over a period of four months (from September 2012-December 2012). The obtained data were studied quantitatively and qualitatively. Many studies have been conducted on cross-gender differences especially in the computer mediated communication CMC, but none so far has focused on the gender differences and (im)politeness in the Arabic discourse of social media network websites although there is a huge number of Arabic users of such websites. The present study, therefore, attempts to fill in the gap in the literature.

Language Use on Social Media: Reflection on Verbal Behavior and Cultural Identities of State Islamic University Undergraduates

Indonesian Journal of EFL and Linguistics

This study aims to identify the verbal behavior characteristics of Islamic university students with the use of Facebook in order to determine the identity forms that become a representation of their language aspects. Qualitative method was applied to objectively describe the social practices, and the varying issues and objectives of linguistic features that are generated and interpreted in these discourses. The data was procured, by using content analysis and observation, from the discourses of students at State Islamic University Imam Bonjol in the form of Facebook status posts and comments written in Facebook groups. The analysis was conducted following Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis with a Critical Linguistics Approach. The results showed that the language features of the students contain some characteristics that appear in the form of abbreviations or acronyms, and the insertion of elements of foreign languages mostly dominated by features of Arabic. It was also found ...

Challenging Gender Norms: A Sociolinguistic Study of the Written Speech Patterns on Facebook

Transylvanian Review , 2016

Facebook, one of the interpersonal interaction sites has quickly become one of the favored methods of correspondence on social media and dialect has additionally been impacted regarding its utilization and rehearses on online networking. Speech patterns i.e. distinctive manners of oral expressions of males and females in a talk are one of the dialect marvels where changes can be followed. Former studies pointed out that men and women vary in their linguistic behavior focusing on the dominance and difference in conversation process. The core of this study is to find out how the dialect of men and ladies is turning out to be more comparative as an after effect of changing sexual orientation thoughts. This study is based on the linguistic features given by Lakoff which are explored in written communication by using qualitative paradigm. The aim of this research was to find out the similar and contrastive linguistic behavior of males and females on social media. This research investigated written conversation of men and women via social networking website i.e. facebook. The data for this research is collected from the comments posted by Facebook users across Pakistan in their Facebook groups, selected through convenience sampling. The comments are collected through participants' group pages based on their activity on the website and the occurrences of linguistic features in their language were noted. Snapshots of all the comments along with the posts were taken and the comments were analyzed in the light of Lakoff's linguistic features showing similarities and differences between the speech of men and women. The data was analyzed qualitatively and the results suggested that the speech patterns used by males and females in online communication on social media had more similarities than differences. The results illustrate that there were more similarities in features as compared to differences in online written communication and it was noted that hedging, tag questions, intonation, adjectives, hypercorrect grammar, swear words, emphatic stress, code switching, assertiveness, pauses, prolonged spellings, emoticons were used equally by males and females whereas the existence of the feature of verbosity was seen immensely among females whilst the application of Urdu font was only applied by males in written communication. This study sets that the contrast in the middle of intense and frail dialect among males and females is lessening with time as men and women are becoming each other's equal in nearly all areas.

Journal article: Barry, W. and Bouvier, G. (2012) ‘Cross-Cultural Communication: Arab and Welsh students’ use of Facebook’, Journal of Arab and Muslim Media Research, 4(2-3): 165-184.

This study focuses on the major sociocultural attributes of communication via Facebook in two different geographical settings. It identifies cross-cultural differences among two different student cohorts in the UAE and the UK. Sociocultural specificities were addressed by means of quantitative surveying complemented by qualitative interviewing. The social information processing (SIP) theory and Geert Hofstede theory of ‘cultural dimensions’ represented the epistemological framework for the study. The findings indicate that although the users shared similar responses in terms of their preferences and uses, the study shows that they differ in certain key points related to online behaviour and communication modes (e.g. preferences for contacting friends), conceptualization of Facebook (an extension to university life or a portal to the world) and issues of privacy (expressing oneself openly). These deviations reflect essentially a cultural dissimilarity, which is a core point of the study. Communication scholars are encouraged to study the research implications of new media, especially regarding differences in culture, as it represents a new avenue in the genre of media studies.

Arabizi : an exploration of the use of the contemporary youth netspeak on social networking sites in Saudi Arabia

2018

With the emergence of social networking sites, young people in the Arab world have started using a new electronic language called "Arabizi". Arabizi, which has dominated the internet sites, is the process of using Roman letters and numbers to write Arabic words so it replaces the Arabic script. This new linguistic code has received strong criticism from Arabic language scholars who claim that its use is detrimental to the Arabic language and the maintenance of Arab identity. However, Arabizi use has continued to rise especially amongst Saudi Arabian youth. Despite the numerous criticisms and discussions about the disadvantages of using Arabizi, limited research exists on the reasons behind its use. Adopting a sociolinguistic and a discourse analytic approach, the present study investigated the attitudes of young Saudi Arabians, aged between 16 and 28 years of age, towards the use Arabizi on SNSs, and specifically Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, the reasons for its use and the functions Arabizi performs on social media. The study employed a netnographic approach which included a mixed method design. Naturally occurring SNS data were collected from 55 Twitter, Facebook and Instagram users. Electronic questionnaires, distributed through open accounts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other SNSs, were completed by 131 users of Arabizi and 20 face to face interviews were undertaken. The data were collected from all over Saudi Arabia and interviews were conducted in the three major cities of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. The qualitative data obtained through the interviews and SNS were analysed using thematic analysis and discourse analysis respectively. The questionnaire and interview results confirmed that Saudi youth use Arabizi for several different reasons, namely, (1) it is a habit, (2) it is a cool and stylish script, (3) it serves their curiosity to try vi I am also grateful to the following university staff: Joelle Vandermensbrugghe for her immense help and support in research writing and time management. Julio Romero, the statistician, for his time and support with the statistics in this thesis. Beth Barber, for her unfailing support and assistance in the copyediting of this thesis.