ABSTRACT
Everything we write online reveals something about ourselves. Even in the most “anonymous” web environment, we easily leave traces of who we are by writing about certain types of content, choosing a particular screenname, or using certain linguistic codes to write a message. Returning to my technobiography discussed at the beginning of Chapter 1, it is clear that I do not draw on the same set of linguistic resources across different online platforms. Even on the same site, I deploy my resources according to my audiences, the content of the post, and other contextual factors. On Facebook, for example, sometimes I post a status update in English only, especially when talking about some serious or work-related topics. However, when I post about something more personal, such as sharing photos of a family gathering, I may write in Cantonese or I may mix Cantonese and English.
At other times, I may comment on my close friends’ wall posts in Romanized Cantonese to ensure that few people can “decode” our messages. My language choice on Facebook not only reflects the ways in which I design my digital writing according to my audience groups, but it is also shaped by who I want to be when I post my messages, such as a friend, a colleague, a family member, or a playful or serious person. In other words, as with face-to-face communication, language choice and code-switching online have always been tied closely to the topic of identity. As will become clear in the discussions in this chapter, languages serve as powerful resources for web participants to assert and position themselves as different kinds of people and perform different aspects of identity. This chapter is concerned with the relationship between multilingual resources and identity performances in online spaces.
