Abstract
Social media such as Facebook and WhatsApp have ceased to be communication channels that are mainly claimed by youth. Still, scientific research on the (socio)linguistic characteristics of social media language focuses almost exclusively on younger generations. The current proposal wants to be a game changer in that respect: we set out to investigate whether and how seniors adopt/adapt the widely acclaimed conventions and typical features of social media writing as identified in previous, mainly adolescent-focused, research. How do seniors reconcile their firmly entrenched writing habits with the potential of a 'new' genre? Are they more inclined to follow social media conventions in intergenerational conversations with digital natives than in conversations with peers?
The research design includes both spontaneous and experimental language data: we will analyze spontaneous WhatsApp conversations of seniors within associations and clubs and compare those with available WhatsApp and Messenger conversations produced by adolescents, and we will set up WhatsApp conversation experiments with individual seniors, to find out to what extent certain features can be elicited from them. Seniors' perceptions and attitudes towards social media writing will be included too.
Not only will this study inform us on linguistic flexibility at an older age, it should also do justice to the agency of older generations in new media and challenge the benchmarks of social media writing that are all too often taken for granted. In the end this should lead to a more inclusive approach to digital literacy.
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