Slang Use Among Generation Z Facebook Users: A Descriptive Qualitative Content Analysis

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23327728

Abstract

Social media has become a primary space for everyday communication, and the language used on these platforms increasingly departs from the conventions of standard written English. Slang, acronyms, and shortened forms circulate rapidly among younger users, raising questions about how these forms are built, why they are used, and what they mean for language learning and teaching. This study analyzed the slang used by Generation Z users on Facebook, the most widely used social media platform in the Philippines. Specifically, it sought to describe the register of the observed posts, identify the types of slang that appeared in public posts and comments, describe the purposes these expressions served, and propose an output based on the findings. A descriptive qualitative design using content analysis was employed. Publicly accessible Facebook posts and comments were purposively selected through non-participant observation and classified using the slang typology of Allan and Burridge (2006) as applied by Yusuf et al. (2022). The observed posts were predominantly informal in register. Five types of slang were identified: acronyms, clipping, flippant phrases, imitative expressions, and fresh and creative expressions, with acronyms being the most frequently used. Users employed slang to greet friends and followers, open conversations casually, express feelings and impressions, and show familiarity with their audience; consistent with earlier studies, slang also served to create humor, keep pace with trends, and save typing time. These findings suggest that social media has become a public space where users build identity and solidarity through informal language, consistent with sociolinguistic, community of practice, and social network perspectives. The study concludes that slang on Facebook is a patterned and purposeful linguistic resource. It proposes a register-awareness guide that helps teachers and learners study online slang and distinguish when informal language is appropriate and when standard forms are expected.