The Twitter Age: Communication across genders in the Arabian Gulf

Abstract

During the last decade, different platforms of social media have become the most crucial vehicles for communication, especially among teenagers. The rapid changes and enhancements in technology have gone hand in hand with a major shift in young people's language and communication. Studies conducted in this field have highlighted gender differences in terms of each gender's participation in social media, whether in quality or quantity. They have also proved that women’s participation still mirrors what is happening in their daily social lives; and regardless of the culture in which the communication is taking place, social media is yet another male-dominated arena. This paper will highlight the differences between genders in their computer-mediated communication (social media) in the Arabian Gulf. It will focus on the discourse management skills and politeness strategies used by both genders. The paper will use critical discourse analysis as the method of analysis, since the negotiation between genders can also be seen as a negotiation of power. It will analyze Arabic data taken from Twitter, one of the most commonly used social media platforms, with the aim of locating the language used by the Arabian Gulf youth and seeing whether it fits the international paradigm or has its own distinct characteristics. The main hypothesis is that women's language in the Gulf actually mirrors the unique status of women there, in such a way that power features, the so-called men's language features, are more commonly used by women than men.