Method refers to a particular way of doing something; medium is a way of
expressing ideas or communicating with people. When citizen sociolinguists shift
attention from expert discourse to popular discourse developed by citizens,
social media turn out to be the most effective method to gather these a large amount
of free available data. Then, the medium is the method.
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social
networking app in which you can edit your picture with various
filters. When you take a picture and post it to Instagram, you can post it to
Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr automatically once you link these apps, which is cross-posting.
Cross-posting is to post the message on one online platform and it is
automatically reposted to your other linked social media accounts. However, by
drawing the language pie charts, we know that the language people use differently
in each of those sections. Various social media platforms can be seen as
different slices of the pie. Do people cross-post often? Why do they cross-post?
Indeed, cross-posting saves a lot of time. Once you set up the accounts you
want to link to, it is extremely useful to save you the work of posting them elsewhere.
Also, cross-posting helps people update often and remain active among different
platforms. Nevertheless, cross-posting might inhibit communication. The purpose
of social media is to engage in communication and conversation. The users of different
social media platforms have different preferences and look for
different things. An Instagram user may be looking for something entertaining. A
LinkedIn user is usually looking for content that is highly informative and
professional. The content that you post for these social media is supposed to
be adjusted to suit the audience that each platform attracts. The length (e.g. 280
characters per tweet), tone (professional/ funny/ cynical), language (formal/
informal, English/Chinese/Spanish) and topic of your content will determine how
appropriate it is for each platform. Also, different social media use different
vocabularies. If the post is inappropriate for that channel, your post may be ignored
and other participants may not engage your conversation. For another, you may
lose your loyal followers when you cross-post too much. Some users may follow
two or more of your social media. If they find the same posts appear across multiple
channels, they may think that each of your social media is not unique and you
just post the same thing everywhere.
Citizen sociolinguistics intends to explore how we use everyday conversations
about language across social media platforms. Through citizen sociolinguistic perspectives, citizens are participants as well as researchers. Do people
notice their different language style across social media? The Answer is Yes! Believe
it or not, people speak differently in different social media, because people tend
to tailor their messages to their imaginary audience reading these apps. Also,
people in China have discussed the differences in their language use through
memes.
What do people talk about on Weibo and Moment? (Weibo is like Twitter, and Moment on Wechat is like Facebook in China.)
What do people look/sound like on Weibo and Moment?
How do people talk? How is the wording?
Moment is one of the sections of WeChat. People may share
pictures/ videos, and forward links. On WeChat, there are family members, friends,
classmates, supervisors, colleagues and teachers, and acquaintances. However,
Weibo is an open platform (like Twitter) in which you may know and follow people
(mostly strangers) that share something in common with you. Obviously, Weibo and
Moment can be seen as two sections of language pies for users. And certain ways
of speaking work well in certain slices of pie. Thus, people may address different
language based on their interests, comfort, engagement and various social
groups.
Do I post differently about the same thing? Of course! (Top is On Moment; down is on Weibo)
These are pictures I took when I went to the bookstore
at MIT. It’s interesting that the T-shirts are printed with formula, scientific
graphs and cheerful slogans about technology rather than the university’s logo
or name (like most schools do). On moment, I just appreciated the intelligence and
said, “smart is the new sexy”, while on Weibo I complained that I didn’t
understand the formula on T-shirts and I felt like I was an idiot because I haven’t
studied Math and Physics for years.
Admittedly, as Rymes mentioned, people are funny when they don't keep their
language rigidly aligned with a certain slice of their language pie. Also, I
agree with Rymes that joy is the risk that we need to take risks while
crossing borders. Imagine, if someone were discussing the hot weather on Moment
by addressing Weibo style language, and the post would be seen by his/ her supervisors, colleagues and teachers, how embarrassing it would be. I have some questions open for discussion: Do you often cross-post? Why or why not? Are you selective about what you post to which
platform? If so, how?
Hi Xiaoyi,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing with your ideas of cross-posting with us! This topic is actually quite familiar to me, as I usually tailor my language in different social media platforms. I agree with you that we use different language in Wechat and Weibo. I would like to talk more about my hobbies and favorite entertainment in Weibo, attributing many of my followers share same interests with me. But I would technically avoid talking too much about them in Wechat, for I understand fewer people who share the same interest with me. Moreover, even in Wechat, I frequently use different language. For instance, I would like to construct a more optimistic figure in Wechat, especially when I deliberately select the target audience of my post, possibly my family members and my teachers. However, when I sharing posts with my peers, I can enjoy more freedom, for I can write more complaints and negative comments. And because Weibo is an open platform, I do not really care about how strangers on the internet think about me.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post! It definitely got me thinking. I actually choose to not link my accounts at all because of the audiences exactly. My social media used goes in this order: Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook. I use Snapchat almost daily. I post to my group snapchats mainly with my friends and use it for news as well as to view my “subscriptions” to various “stories” like NBC news, food network, and “life hacks” to name a few. Whatever I put on my Snapchat is mostly my closest friends so it can literally be mindless posting.
However, what I post publically the most are my Instagram stories. I feel that I have the most followers there so whatever I put there “has to be good”. I actually do not post a lot of pictures myself, but I post a lot to my stories which delete daily. I am on it mostly every day liking other people’s pictures though.
Regarding my Facebook, I rarely actually use it. I only have it so that I can become tagged in pictures my friends post of me so I can see them too ( is that bad? ). I think I stopped using it when my mom got one honestly. That idea goes back to the notion of “who” is the audience for each platform. I feel like my generation does not use Facebook as much and the other newer platforms have taken their space.
I am interested to know if anyone else in our class link their accounts too? I do agree with you that it is a little dare I say - annoying - when people post the same content that they send you individually to their actual page. I wonder what other people think of it as well?
Thanks for your post!
Gab
Hi Claire!
ReplyDeleteLove the comparison of "Moment" and "Weibo." Even the name "moment" seems to set the space aside as something more "PG" and family friendly. And I realy like how you used yourself as an example at the end there!
I'm also glad you mentioned the connection to language pies. Interestingly, yesterday, the Penn Undergrad Dean of admissions made news for acting like a raving idiot at an Eagles game: https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/09/23/angry-eagles-fan-penn-dean-eric-furda-video
It seems the boundary (to invoke Sarah's discussion of boundaries and ruptures) between his "Eagles fan" pie slice and his "Ivy League Admissions Dean" was completely blown open to great effect. The article makes a lot out of the "Ivy League Dean" title and contrasting it with his attire and demeanor at the Eagles game. I wonder how the institution (Penn) has responded to this--Dean Furda himself seems to have made light of it, but I suspect he felt a bit of horror and shame when he saw his rant going viral!
Hi Claire,
ReplyDeleteYour post provides a great reflection on our uses of social media and is an excellent extension of the cross-posting we read about in Betsy's chapter. I specifically liked the memes where you compare Weibo and Moment, platforms with which I am unfamiliar but are popular. I wonder if our posting is not only influenced by our audience, but by also the state of permanence by the post? As an example, much like the example Gaby described but through a different platform, I'll use Instagram stories to post more on my more mundane and sometimes crass thoughts because I know that they'll disappear in 24 hours. I also am particular about my audience and filter who follows my private account. For social media that is much more permanent like Facebook, I tend to think twice before posting something personal.
Thank you for this great reflection Claire! Your post made me realize that I am not capable of committing to more than one social media platform at a time. I'm currently happily committed to Instagram, but even there my social-self/language use is fractured and what I share publicly is not the same as what I share with those on my "close friends list"! I am more likely to use Vincentian dialect with my close friends list because I don't think it would be interesting to / understood by others who just follow me publicly. I have tried other platforms like Twitter, where I tried on a "language educator" self, but that felt very forced. As a hardcore introvert, I hate imposing myself on the conversations of others and Twitter feels very much like that, but on steroids 😅. I was also a huge fan of Tumblr (way before Gen Z realised they could save their porn there) and that was more of an artistic outlet, I was very into photography back then, and I met complete strangers there who I am still friends with to this day.
ReplyDeleteAll this to say, I don't cross post because my online life, like my real life is heavily partitioned and I have always been absolutely horrified by the idea of linking my social media accounts for privacy issues (even though I'm pretty sure Google knows my blood type by now).