Browsing by Author "Yasmeen, Uzma"

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    Language and identity in the virtual discourse
    (UNIVERSITY OF MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY, 2015) Yasmeen, Uzma
    Emergence of online media and mediated communications has triggered a change in the standard features of language and patterns of everyday life in society. In this global world, new networking application, for example, Twitter, Skype, Linked In, etc. are connecting human beings. However, the present study investigates how Pakistani Facebook users project their identity onto the virtual space. To investigate the subject, data from Facebook ‘Profiles’ and ‘Wall posts’ were copied and scrutinized. The participants for the present study were divided into three equal groups according to their ages- teenagers, youngsters, and adults. Moreover, males and females of each age group were equally included in the study to see differences with gender. The data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively through simple computations of the content and subjective investigations by using Fairclough’s three dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis. The findings revealed that people have a wide array of opportunities to project their real identity onto the virtual space, like self disclosure through profile, home pages, linguistic structures, and most importantly name and profile picture show who a person is. Moreover, it was found that traditional patterns of variation in socialization, self-disclosure, and communication on the basis of age and gender persist in the virtual world. Where male and female show differences in their life on Facebook, but these differences vary across participants of three age groups. Moreover, transition in life phases of adolescents, youngsters, and adults is identified through their linguistic and socialization behavior equally in the virtual space.