Language and identity in Facebook.

Abstract

As a site catering explicitly to the maintenance and construction of personal relationships, social networking site (SNS) Facebook provides its users with a wide range of spaces and means through which they can construct and perform their identity. Despite technological advancements, including a notable and progressive shift to increased multimodality, language remains central to these practices. It constitutes a key way through which one can “type oneself into being” (Sundén 2003, p. 3). This chapter provides an overview of sociolinguistic research on language and identity on Facebook. In addition to delineating the rise of SNSs and research on identity in SNSs, it reviews major contributions to the study of language and identity on Facebook, outlines work in progress, addresses major research challenges and difficulties, and provides an outlook to future research.