Negotiating Identity Through Language: A Sociolinguistic Study of Pakistani Youth Discourse on Social Media

Abstract

This research investigates the strategies adopted by the users of Gen Z in Pakistan for creating digital identity through translanguaging, slang, using emojis, hashtags and app vernaculars on Instagram, TikTok and X (previously Twitter). The analysis of 250 public digital artefacts demonstrates that young people use a mix of Urdu, English, Roman Urdu and regional languages to enact belonging; to humour; to position themselves within class; to express gendered meanings; and to social critique. The study is based on the Translanguaging Theory and Multimodal Discourse Analysis and adopts a qualitative digital sociolinguistic approach with the aid of NVivo-assisted thematic coding. Results show that the young use flexible multilingual products to balance transnational digital culture and regional affiliation. Micro-analysis of the comments and digital texts reveals that the multimodal semiotic tools are functioning for negotiating the social situation and for enacting subtle resistance to the institutional norm. To sum up, the study proposes that the communication of social media has transformed the new forms of sociolinguistic practices in which the digital space becomes a place of interaction where meaning and identity is constantly being negotiated.