Abstract

This study describes how members of a transnational social network of Mexican bilinguals living in Chicago manipulate their language on online social media to facilitate and maintain close connections across borders. Using a discourse-centered online ethnographic approach, I examine conversations posted on members’ Facebook walls and the contexts in which the discourses are formed. I argue that members of this transnational social network engage in the use of deterritorialized discourse to create chronotopes; that is, through discourse, members connect temporal and spatial relationships and form them into a single constructed context. These chronotopes help members recontextualize Facebook as a unique transnational social place that connects families and allows for the continuation of cultural practices that maintain their transnationalism. This study sheds light on the use of linguistic resources and modes of communication to examine how individuals construct imagined experiences within a real intimate community in the deterritorialized space of online social media.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2017-04-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088317693996
Open Access
Closed
Topics

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

  1. College Composition and Communication
  2. Computers and Composition
  3. College English

Cites in this index (4)

  1. Research in the Teaching of English
  2. Written Communication
  3. College English
  4. Written Communication
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CrossRef global citation count: 21 View in citation network →