ABSTRACT
This chapter engages with an incipient sociolinguistic trend of studying young peoples’ digital language practices in the context of the family. It provides an overview of sociolinguistic research on youth and digital media and describes how this field of research has paved the way for the study of language and social media in the family. The chapter argues that situating the study of young peoples’ digital language practices in the context of the family may provide a new and more nuanced take on the youth aspect of young peoples’ digital language use. That is, by focusing on both parents and teenagers’ more or less explicit metalinguistic reflections on generational differences and opposing styles of writing, researchers gain crucial knowledge about what is youthful and what is definitely not.
