The Impact of Digital Communication in Social Media on Linguistic Transformation in Egyptian Youths: A Study on the Impact of Gender on the Facebook Language

Abstract

This study aims at analyzing the relationship between gender and response patterns of the transformation in the social media platforms of the ideas, thoughts and information inside the youth groups on Facebook. This research is classified within the framework of descriptive research and depends on the survey and the comparative approaches as auxiliary methods. It uses a content analysis tool. The research sample is divided into two youth groups, whose content is analyzed on Facebook:  the “Weird Life” group, distinguished by its diversity, and the group of "good bullies" from October to December 2020. Among the most important results at the level of common linguistic features between males and females, the research revealed that the language of young people on communication sites represents a mixture between verbal expression and visual expression tools. It also found out that young men of both sexes tend to employ vocabulary that is Arabized about the English language in many of their posts on social media, Some of them also use Latin letters and numbers in writing Arabic vocabulary.  Moreover, young people in blogging and commenting tend to use vulgar vocabulary that does not take into account common values or traditions. As for the language used by young females, it is characterized by a tendency to use linguistic texts that are not accompanied by pictures or videos. Their language tends to employ the "Arabizi" method in writing Arabic vocabulary with Latin letters or numbers.