Ayaka Ono and Abbie Ransom
Introduction
Our research topic is “How does one’s bilingualism affect their social media usage, and how does social media affect one’s language identity?” The younger generations of the 21st century oftentimes have social media as a part of their lives, and the focal point of bilingualism in social media is what we would like to investigate. If social media can be used for more than just an outlet for people, but a support network for those who are bilingual or multi-cultured and are struggling in some sense to find their identity. Ayaka is a good representation of what that can look like, because she is from Japan and is bilingual. She expressed to me that she sometimes feels torn between the two cultures, and that in some ways, she feels like she is two people.
Background
The concept of Language and Identity have been studied and debated for years. An applied Linguist from University of Memphis and the author of Second language socialization and learner agency: Adoptive family talk., Lyn Wright Fogle claims that, “Context plays [an important] role, since most multilinguals don’t use languages in the same place”. (Fogle) Just as an example, people change languages depending on their environment, whether it is at school, a particular groups of friends, to certain family members, and at work. People tend to adapt to what is comfortable or convenient, which is the same for language. This behavior of “bilinguals who use and acquire their prospective languages for different purposes”, is labeled as the complementary principle. (Fogle) This influences identity in a way that it changes people’s behaviors by alternating languages so that its comfortable for not only themselves, but to other people as well.
Personality is perhaps internally established and fixed, and one may argue that bilingualism and simply alternating languages does not change an individual’s identity. However, when an individual speaks in a different language, the external perception of that person (the individual is speaking to) shifts instead. External perception is the understanding of the way in which others would see and describe you as. Have you ever wondered how a person regards/interprets you and changed the way you speak to them? Similarly, bilinguals would shift their style or alter the way they speak in order to establish certain identities within each interaction. Just like using the standard form or a formal way to speak for business situations or when wanting to show more authority in a situation. The only differences is that Bilinguals can alternate languages, and use that to communicate with people across the country. This effect is known as Situational code-switching, which is the tendency for bilinguals or bilingual communities to use a different language in different situations.
When one learns how to speak a different language, they tend to expose themselves to that culture to gain further understanding. Culture is also one of the significant factors that influences an individual’s identity and perception. Within each culture, there are certain set of values that are learned as a child is growing. The values are passed down from generation to generation but tend to change over time. The process of passing down values and traditions between Japanese and American cultures are no different. A study conducted by Kashima and Triandis (1986) identified that there was a difference in the way that people explained their own successes between Japanese and American people. The American participants tended to explain they were successful due to their dispositional factors such as adaptability, diligence, and shrewdness. While Japanese participants lent their successes to situational factors such as luck. This shows that the American participants displayed self-serving bias and the Japanese participants displayed modesty bias. And that American/western countries promote individualism, while Asian/eastern countries such as Japan value collectivism and modesty. The cultures of which one is exposed to strongly influences the way that they perceive factors such as themselves and successes.
Methodology
We conducted a total of 18 in-person surveys to generalize what the general population of Western WA University thinks about bilingualism in social media, and how it affects one’s identity. The survey questions created in a way so that the participants circled a number that they believed best fit. The number scoring was like: 1- disagree/never, 2- somewhat disagree/rarely, 3- neutral/neither, 4- somewhat agree/somewhat frequently, and 5 was agree/frequent. The procedure of conducting these surveys is as following: We approached a student on campus. Ignoring their race, age, or appearance. We asked them if they would be interested in filling out a survey pertaining to bilingualism in social media and its influences on one’s identity. Before they started, we handed them the consent form to which they were told to sign, write the date, and put their age before continuing with the survey. Last, but most importantly, we asked them if they identified as either “bilingual” or “non-bilingual,” and after recording their response, they were able to proceed with taking the survey. Most people took between 1-2 minutes, as our survey is not very lengthy. After collecting their completed survey, we divided the completed surveys into two piles depending on if they were bilingual or a non-bilingual participant. Finally, we gathered all of the surveys and averaged out the answers for each questions to compare it with the bilingual and non-bilingual group.
Findings
From the data, we were able to gather that both groups equally use and believe that social media isan essential need in society. However, there were differences in the thought of bilingualism influencing one’s perception and shaping the individual. The average score for the bilingual group was 4.9 and 4.2 for those questions, while the non-bilingual group was 3.1 and 3.3 which is a 1.8 and 0.9 difference. The Bilingual participants generally agreed that bilingualism influences perception and shapes the individual, while the non-bilingual group was neutral to that idea. In the frequency in switching languages/changing the way one speaks in different situations, the bilingual participant’s average score was 3.4, and the non-bilingual participants was 2.3. This difference shows that Bilingual people are frequently practice and are conscious on situational code switching. Situational code switching is a shift in one’s style or altering the way one speaks in order to establish certain identities within each interaction. In another question, “Do you think Bilingualism changes the way in which we behave?” the bilingual participants scored a 4.2 for their average, and the non-bilingual participants scored a 3.4. The score difference is 1.2 for this question, and it shows the same analysis as the last question, where bilingual people seem more aware of situational code switching. And for the last question, “Does being bilingual and using social media affect one’s preferred content?” the scores were not that different. The bilingual participants scored 3.8 and the non-bilingual participants scored a 3.6 for their average. This was an interesting finding because in the previous questions, the bilingual participants mostly responded positive to the fact that being bilingual influences one’s perspective, but the score almost matches the non-bilingual participant’s score average. Generally speaking, the bilingual participants scored higher averages for most of the questions though. The scholars who researched bilingualism also found that practice situational code switching and that bilingualism effects our perception greatly, acting as a filter we see through.
Discussion
Before entering this project, there were some assumptions that we had for the outcome of the research we were going to connect. For one, we predicted that Western’s feedback of our topic would not contribute to a well-rounded response, more specifically because we understood that Western Washington University is predominantly caucasian, with a large population of Asian students. In order to get a randomized sample from WWU students, we had to randomly, but deliberately approach people who would add to our research. For example, Ayaka was largely in charge of interviewing AUAP students, whom most of them she knew. This was her responsibility purely because she speaks the same language as the AUAP students, and could easily translate questions and also translate their questions back to English. We had multiple interactions with both bilingual and non-bilingual people whom we gathered data from about their opinions on social media. Ultimately, everyone was interested in taking the survey, and none were opposed. Although the consent form was a part of the confidentiality of our project, most people did not feel like it was wholly necessary because none of the questions were triggering or very heavy. The articles that we collected had a consistent argument, which was similar to our preconceptions of the project. The authors generally viewed bilingualism as something that heightens one’s ability to make cross-cultural connections and broadens one’s view on the world, instead of being more individualistic or subjective. These findings combined with our research overall answered the question of “How does bilingualism affect one’s language identity” but without a focus on social media. We found that social media is not highly associated or correlated to one’s social media usage. The idea of bilingualism interacting with social media and altering the way one views and/or uses social media is assumed, but is not strongly correlated with the way that bilingual and non-bilingual people identify their identities. When entering this project, we didn’t have a strong hypothesis about the outcome of this project, but through the process of researching and conducting surveys, we gained a well-rounded sample of Western’s students and the way that they associate themselves with their native tongue, and how that has shaped themselves.
Conclusion
We conclude that bilingualism influences the individual’s perception, values, behavior, and an important factor that shapes the individual. Therefore, speaking a different language establishes certain identities within each interaction. Although being Bilingual is beneficial in current society, it also holds another side of the coin. Many bilingual people tend to experience a wave of confusion, a feeling of not belonging in one or either culture. Social media on the other hand is used cross-culturally and used for many different reasons. We were able to extract from the data that social media itself is a very diverse platform for both expressing one’s culture and identity. Bilingualism can affect one’s social media usage in many ways, but it has become apparent that the views of social media can be completely different depending on the language you speak, or if you are bilingual.
References
Felicitas Heyne. “My Blind Spot – The Difference between Self-Awareness and External Perception”. 18 Oct 2018, https://www.ipersonic.com/blog_files/My-Blind-Spot-The-Difference-between-Self-awareness-and-External-Perception.html
Jennifer Walker. “Does being bilingual change your personality?”. 18 Oct 2018, https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2016/12/12/bilingual-personality-change/
University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. “6.3 Individual and Cultural Differences in Person Perception”. 18 Oct 2018, http://open.lib.umn.edu/socialpsychology/chapter/6-3-individual-and-cultural-differences-in-person-perception/
Yoexpert.com. “Is there a difference between Japanese and American values?”. 18 Oct 2018, http://psychology.yoexpert.com/psychology-general/is-there-a-difference-between-japanese-and-america-33725.html