The interview that I conducted with six students at the University of the Western Cape looks at a range of different aspects with regards to chatting. As noted in Chapter Three, three of these participants, Mahmood, Tasneem and Brandon, are second-year Economic and Management Sciences students as well as friends. Two of the participants are Arts students, Billie is a third-year student and Kiara is a second-year student. Finally, the sixth participant is a Linguistics Postgraduate student, who was also the facilitator of the interview. One of the topics discussed by the group was what they felt was necessary with regards to the norms of chatting. In this data there are many different ideas concerning the necessity of greeting and the way in which a conversation should be ended. Conversations (chats) are typically shaped by the relationship of the participants.
Within this focus group, there were a range of opinions with regards to greeting at the start of the conversation and the ending of the chat with a closing. Brandon and Billie strongly believe that it is necessary to greet when one starts a conversation regardless of how many times you chat to the person or people within the same day. Brandon stated that one should consider each opportunity that you have been given to chat to someone as an honour and thus should treat it as such because you do not know whether you will receive that honour again. Tasneem also argued that you should greet when you chat, however, this may differ when it comes to certain individuals. For instance, if you have the type of relationship with someone where you always just jump straight into your reason for chatting as if the conversation is everlasting, as is the case with very close friends, then it is permissible to omit the greetings. This would possibly also apply to someone that you have seen earlier in the day or have already spoken to. Below is an extract in which the participants discuss who greets and who doesn‟t (turns 1012- 1028).
78 Extract 4.24
1012. Bi: I greet first
1013. N: Always, no matter who it is? 1014. Bi: Always
1015. T: No, not all the time
1016. B: Naai I always greet because= =
1017. Bi: = =Not all the time but most of the time 1018. T: Mmm
1019. N: And if you like… 1020. M: Naai I won‟t greet
1021. T: I‟ll start with like „hey, how you doing‟? 1022. K: Why not? [@M]
1023. M: Huh
1024. T: And then – I dunno 1025. B: Naai I won‟t do that 1026. M: I won‟t greet
1027. B: I will just greet and jump straight into it
1028. T: You always do that with me! You always don‟t greet [@M]
From the above, it is evident there are a variety of positions with regards to greetings and closings, however there is some uncertainty with Tasneem but she does feel that it isn‟t necessary to greet all the time.
In the above extract, Mahmood claims that he does not always greet the people he knows. Mahmood believes that having the conventional “hey, how you doing?” types of conversations are tedious and thus feels that if you pose a question it is more likely to escalate into an interesting conversation (See extract 4.25 below). He also states that less effort would have to be put into the conversation to keep it going. Mahmood also argues that by doing this, you actually have a greater impact on the person that you are chatting to, because the person will be thinking of the conversation that you had long after the conversation has ended, and thus think of you. Whereas, if you had simply had the conventionalised conversation, you would be conforming with what is considered the norm and would have in no way stood out. Tasneem, however, disagreed with Mahmood in this
79 regard as she felt that you should not waste her time with trivial nonsense and should get to the point of why you are chatting. Below is an extract in which Mahmood explains how he starts conversations (turn 1033 - 1045):
Extract 4.25
1033. M: Look here, this is what typically happens and this is what I discovered about chatting – you like „hey‟ then you will reply „hey‟= =
1034. T: = =„hey‟ [laughs] 1035. B: Naai, naai, naai
1036. M: Or and then the person will ask, „how you doing?‟ that will form and then it will „I‟m okay and you?‟
1037. T: Mmm and then after
1038. M: And then after that you need to generate something in order for the conversation to go on, it won‟t just flow
1039. T: But= =
1040. M: = =However, if you ask the person „hey gotta quick question for you‟. Person will be like= =
1041. T: = =Quick, just what‟s going on
1042. M: Okay this guy‟s – what? You‟d want to know what the question is 1043. B: Awe it‟s intrigue
1044. T: Mmm
1045. M: It‟s intriguing right?
Mahmood shows awareness of the generic norms of chatting which was described in the first half of this chapter. However, Mahmood deviates from the conventional manner of chatting when he feels that it has become too boring and will not „flow‟. However, Tasneem completely disagrees because she says if you want something or you want to chat then just ask or chat but do not ask random trivial things and waste her time (turns 1100-1107) (See extract 4.26 below):
80 Extract 4.26
1100. T: No when you need something, say for example you need something from me then you come with that „Hey, how you doing?‟. Okay this is a bit weird hey but when you come with that like „what you doing?‟ and then like you know that this person is only chatting to you coz they want something from you right and then like and then= =
1101. M: Oh, oh
1102. T: You be like, like just leave this like, like, the one day that happened to me actually last week. So I just told the guy „What do you want from me‟ like why are you even being nice to me
1103. B: Yor you give it to him straight 1104. M: No, but look here Tasneem= =
1105. T: = =Coz it‟s annoying when you, when you, waste my time, you can just tell me 1106. M: I waste your time, yor (laughs)
1107. T: I‟m not saying you, I‟m not saying you, in general. I‟m just saying like the person is like wasting my time. They can just be like „Look here I want this from you‟, why must you still be nice to me and like „Oh my word, I miss you‟ just get to the point
With regards to the endings again, Brandon always greets at the end of his chats. Most of the participants greet at the end of the chats however, the forms of these greetings differ from conversation to conversation as well as participant to participant just as in the case with greetings in the beginning, as shown in section 4.3. Depending on who they are chatting to, Mahmood and Nabeelah do not always greet at the end of their conversations. The participants use terms such as: mwah, got to go (g2g), bye, chat later and so on. Thus, openings and closings are an element of style and may be affected by a range of variables including personal style and identity.
4.6 Conclusion
In the above analysis, I looked at the typical topics that occurred and are discussed in the chats, what the typical genre and registers are of chat conversations on different instant messaging applications, as well as the occurances of openings and closings in the chat and the
81 manner in which these openings and closings are affected. The questions that were answered in this analysis are:
What are the typical topics which recur in these chats, as well as the frequency thereof?
How do these topics relate to the psychosocial and emotional well-being of the participants?
Do the chats have similar generic structures or how they may differ?
Which linguistic and discursive registers, are used and how do these features shape the chats?
What the focus group users state with regards to greetings and closings during chatting and how it is perceived, as well as how many actually make use of this feature? and finally
Whether „pre-closings‟ are utilized and why?
The analysis shows that different topics of discussions can occur in chats and the reasons for the the initiation of these topics are mostly as a result of the participants involved. The topics which recurred most frequently were, establishing contact, social plans, exchanging news, discussing academic work and discussing relationships. Thus, the analysis argues that as a result of the nature of these topics, the particpants are able to draw on each other for support and are then able to strengthen their psychosocial and emotional well-being as well as establish and strengthen interpersonal relationships between themselves.
Despite the variability of these chat topics, many of these chats still follow the same generic structure. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the typical UWC student‟s chat conversations are generally to establish some sort of contact. Most of the chats typically follow similar generic structures which start with a greeting, usually followed with by „the how are you stage?‟ or establishing contact stage. This then brings the participants to the exchanging news stage of the chat. Here, the exchanging news stage generally discusses things that may have happened or focus on planning social outings. This is either followed by another exchanging news stage or by the closing of the chat. The greeting and closing of the chats are usually very short, for example single turns, however, the stages which carry the content of the conversation generally are not of a particular length and may differ depending on the topic as
82 well as the participants in the conversation. Thus, conforming to the argument of Bock (2013: 89), “despite the conventionality and predictability of this genre and register, they are also fluid and hybrid”.
The greetings and closings which occurred in the chats were not exclusive to the chats in which they occurred. Depending on the participants and the relationship between them, greetings may occur or not and if they do occur, they may occur in different and sometimes unusual forms. There is no „right‟ or „wrong‟ way of greeting when chatting with one‟s peers or friends but rather there is a norm or expected style for peers. Many of the chats that I analysed did in fact begin with a greeting and end with a closing. This aspect of the generic structure of chats is supported by the participants of the interview of whom the majority agree that it is important to greet, whoever, it is you may be planning to chat with, before launching into the conversation. However, where the greetings or closings were omitted, this may reflect the more intimate nature of the participants where their chats do not end but are part of a „never-ending conversation‟ (Spilioti, 2011)
The analysis further argues that the registers that have been adapted for the chats are one of the aspects that shape the chats, in conjunction with the relationships of the participants. The range of features used in the chats by my particpants is typical of the global textese register. However, this global register has been adapted to local varieties and norms by my particpants in order to conform with the „rules‟ or norms of their speech community and personal style. Thus, chat conversations are shaped by many aspects including the topic, participants, generic structure, register as well as the mode of the chatting.
83 CHAPTER FIVE
5 FOCUS GROUP AND QUESTIONNAIRE DATA ANALYSES
5.1 Introduction
This chapter focuses on the chatting habits and norms of UWC students. The first section focuses on the analysis of the survey which I conducted at the University of the Western Cape. The data was collected in the form of questionnaires conducted with undergraduate students at the University of the Western Cape. This data was collected to complement and better understand the instant messaging data that I have also collected. The analysis will be a discussion of the habits and norms that students at UWC have developed when or for chatting on instant messaging applications. The second part of this chapter will be an analysis of the interview which was conducted with a group of undergraduate students and one postgraduate. In the analysis, I will illustrate what it is that the participants considered be a norm and what they considered to be acceptable whilst chatting, i.e. chatting habits, and how their style may have changed with the shift to smartphones. I will also show how these findings concur with the findings of my previous data analysis chapter.