Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2023, Síða 150

the ethnographic information about the users, and the users’ own accounts of
their digital practices.
The results of my qualitative analysis show that the users’ linguistic choices
are not so much determined by the communicative function of the post but by
contextual factors. These contextual factors include the audience that the users
address as well as the users’ identity work, that is, how they present themselves
and with what (social) group they want to affiliate themselves. Identity work
influences the users’ digital practices as they draw on different strategies to
emphasize different aspects of their identity. I found that the informants empha-
size their local Icelandic identity and affiliate themselves with the Icelandic speech
community by drawing on Icelandic features. For example, some users took part
in a photo challenge called Hversdagsmyndakeppni (‘Everyday photo challenge’)
that revolved around users posting photos of their everyday routines. Interestingly,
the challenge was carried out solely among Icelandic speakers. Accordingly, the
users demonstrate their belonging to the Icelandic speech community and thus
validate their participation in it by drawing on Icelandic features to contextualize
their contributions in the challenge. Beyond that, I found that users employ mul-
tilingual practices when they want to bring their multicultural competence to the
forefront. For example, two users repeatedly draw on both Icelandic and English
features to project glocal identities. While Icelandic in these cases serves to
address fellow Icelanders and to assert local affiliation, English features are used
for stylization purposes, for example to show wit and humor, and to perform a
cosmopolitan personality.
In addition to that, the users’ digital practices are influenced by the audience
in front of which they perform this identity. Facebook is a site where users are
confronted with a network that consists of members from different and formerly
separate backgrounds. The convergence of these different social, cultural, and
linguistic contexts has been described as context collapse and this may entail cer-
tain challenges for the users. For example, my qualitative analysis shows that
unexpected linguistic choices can be scrutinized and challenged by the audience.
This is illustrated in the following example (Figure 1).

Vanessa Monika Isenmann150