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Constructing identities online- an exploratory study of Saudi youths’ strategies
Alenezi, Mohammed Qurait1, Kebble, Paul G2, Fluck, Andrew3, Yang, Yang4, Bown, Andy5.
Language is used not only for communication but also for enacting multiple identities to reveal
information about oneself such as who we are, where we come from, who we believe in etc. This is done
by means of using a tribe, gender, region or a country specific dialect, accent, sociolect, vocabulary or
phrase to identify oneself with a specific tribe, gender, social class or ethnic group, a region or a nation.
Greetings such as-‘Assalamualeikum’ (‘peace be with you’), ‘God bless’, ‘Shalom’ (‘peace’) are used
by people to identify oneself with a particular faith (Muslim, Christian and Jewish respectively). Thus,
language use serves here as a means of constructing religious identity. Region and tribe specific dialects,
accents and sociolects are also used to construct regional, social class, ethnic or tribal identities. This
process of identity construction occurs both in the real world as well as in a virtual reality on-line, where
people can either take their real identity with them or construct an on-line identity that can be as divergent
as they wish. As on-line communication gains significance in everyone’s life, research on the nature of
this communication is required to uncover various underlying issues governing this type of
communication. In this respect, the present study aimed to explore the strategies and ways in which
language and other means were used by Saudi Arabian youths to construct and enact their various
identities such as gender, social class, tribal, regional, religious etc. To this end, a social networking
website was designed and Saudi youths (aged between 18 to 30 years) were invited to participate by
posting and chatting online on the website. Of such posts, around 300 comments were selected for the
content analysis. The analysis of these comments posted by 71 Saudi females and 85 males over two
months revealed that Saudi youths used their language on-line to construct and enact their gender, tribal,
regional, religious identities. Participants were seen to be using their tribe, region, gender, religion and
Arab culture related words and phrases to construct and reveal their tribal, regional, gender, religious
and cultural identities consciously and unconsciously.
Affiliation:
- University of Tasmania, Australia
- Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
- University of Tasmania, Australia
- University of Tasmania, Australia
- University of Tasmania, Australia
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