Chapter 1. A comparative study of compliment responses among Chinese Renren users and American Facebook users

Abstract

Advancements in technology, spread of English language worldwide, increasing use of online social networking sites (SNSs) and globalization are recognized as highly powerful forces influencing everyday language use and practices. This has led to concerns that technologization, in line with globalization, and increasing dominance of English language will lead to the homogenization of the world, reducing cultural and linguistic diversity in discourse practices. which fall within the heart of this interconnectedness (Sifianou 2013). In this paper, we examine if, and to what extent, the use of SNSs lead to homogenization among discourse practices of Chinese and American English users in two similar SNSs (Facebook and Renren [the Facebook of China]), as reflected in their compliment response (CR) strategies. The findings may provide evidence as to the kinds of changes that increased interconnectedness may produce in language use of different speech communities. An analysis of the data revealed that increasing use of online SNSs and interconnectedness does not necessarily mean eradication of cultural differences in discourse practices but does decrease cultural differences in language use. The changes are uni-directional and dominated by the English language and American/Western Cultural values.