Language choice and self-presentation in social media: the case of university students in Hong Kong

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the relationship between identity performance and language choice in social media, and how such choice may be shaped by existing practices in more traditional media. Identity is a fluid concept. Some aspects of identity are relatively static and not easy to change, such as age, gender, and nationality. Other aspects are defined by social domains (e.g. work, family, and education) and relationships (e.g. friends, colleagues, and family). Some forms of identity can change from time to time, such as hobbies, interests and social networks. The plural form identities thus seems a more appropriate term to use in the context of this chapter. What this understanding of identity also highlights is that these properties are not pre-determined and fixed, but are open to transformation and changes. These changes may be a result of different contexts of interaction, or the ways interlocutors interpret the identities being projected. In any given context of interaction, there may be one or more aspects of identity that people may or may not want to express or reveal. Identities, as Goffman (1990[1959]) puts it, are like masks that can be worn and taken off in different contexts of social interaction.