How Indonesian Millennial Generations Communicate on social media

Abstract

Computer equipment has replaced verbal communication with virtual (computer-mediated communication/CMC). One of the most widely used internet-based communications is social media. The ease of use and the availability of features make social media an effective medium for communicating and sharing with anyone. This study observes the language and forms of verbal and nonverbal communication used by the millennial generation on social media. Social media in this study is limited to Facebook, Instagram, Line, and WhatsApp. The research method used is descriptive qualitative and quantitative. The respondents of this study were 268 students at a private university in Jakarta, Indonesia. Data were collected using the g-form, observation on social media, documentation, and in-depth interviews and analyzed by content analysis. This research found that respondents mixed nonformal Indonesian, Betawi language, foreign languages, and alay (slang) language in social media. Verbal and nonverbal communication forms show unique styles, such as many abbreviations and acronyms, acronym abbreviation, letter games, combining letters and numbers, multiple punctuation marks, the addition of suffixes, onomatopoeic spellings, figurative language, lowercase and capital letters, codeswitching, euphemisms, sarcasm, phoneme changes, symbol, emoticons, imojis. This study contributes to the empirical evidence of language use on social media by the Indonesian millennial generation