STICKING IN/OUT: THE SEMIOTICS OF MOBILE MESSAGING STICKERS FOR POSITIONING IN GROUP PROJECTS

Abstract

Stickers have gained traction as a popular means of conveying meaning when conversing on digital mediums. Conceptualised as a semiotic resource through which linguistic performances can be carried out, stickers are studied here with the aim of contributing to the understanding of digital and visual linguistic practices. More specifically, how stickers, among other available semiotic resources, get activated by users to position their identities and stances. This study adopts moment analysis to analyse past records of group chat discussions that were created by Singaporean university students for the purposes of facilitating communications to complete school projects together. These group chats were hosted on Telegram, an instant messaging (IM) platform. In this corpus, users tend to strategically employ stickers to position into roles and stances of positive valence. Greater frequencies and range of expression are observed when users are trying to position into more leading roles within a group or have closer relationships with the team. As with other social behaviour, acts of sticker use have been observed to take cues from social others within a group. To conclude, findings suggest how stickers possess the quality of ambivalence. The fluidity of stickers and the practices surrounding their use gives a glimpse into how stickers as a semiotic resource, and hence language, can be mobilised to shape culture.