Facebook, digital writing and cultural identity

In the study Online Language: The role of culture in self-expression and self-construal on Facebook,the authors examined Facebook pages as a method of identity construction and self expression. Basing their hypotheses upon the results of similar studies, the researchers used the text from the social networking site to explore how the influence of culture on self-construal and self-expression is reflected in language, and to determine if there are differences between Caucasian, African-American and ethnic Asian users.

120 Facebook pages were examined with 60 belonging to males and 60 belonging to females, and with 40 belonging to Caucasians, 40 belonging to Asians,and 40 belonging to African-Americans. All participants were solicited through one Facebook profile belonging to a student at a Midwestern university. The pages were coded by trained research assistants using the following categories: physical description, social affiliation, internal expression, immediate situation,other's judgment, possession and miscellaneous.

The following hypotheses were posed and examined using the data:
African Americans were hypothesized to have a higher proportion of internal expressions, followed by Caucasians and finally Asians. The study concluded that there was no significant difference in internal expressions used by these groups. Asians were expected to have a higher level of social affiliation expressed on their pages, followed by Caucasians and finally African Americans. The study concluded that there were no significant differences in social affiliation between these groups. Contrary to the initial hypothesis, African Americans were found to have a significantly higher percentage of words indicating social interaction than Caucasians and Asians. Although not hypothesized, African Americans were found to have significantly more internalized attributes than Caucasians or Asians, who did not significantly differ from one another.

I would recommend this study to researchers studying race and digital writing. Unlike many studies on race and writing, this study focuses less on linguistic characteristics of writing that may distingush a writer's race and focuses on the content of the text composed and how that may or may not differ between races. Additionally, although the participants differed in race, the study chose a population that would assumably have similar social and personal characteristics by virtue of being related through mutual friends and being related through affiliation with the same university. I believe the selection of this population helps to validate the results, providing a measure of control for social factors such as level of education and peer association.

DeAndrea,D.; Shaw,A.and Levine,T.(2010). Online Language:The Role of Culture in Self-Expression and Self-Construal on Facebook. Journal of Language and Social Psychology. 29:425.