FROM POSTS TO BONDS: UNCOVERING ADOLESCENTS’ FRIENDSHIP ON FACEBOOK THROUGH LANGUAGE USE

Social media, such as Facebook, is used not only as a communication tool but also as a space to maintain friendships and expand friend networks, particularly among adolescents. In response to this phenomenon, the current study investigates friendship dynamics among teenagers by analyzing the language used in their Facebook posts. To accomplish the objective of the study, a corpus analysis was employed to identify patterns of friendship expression. Data were collected using a Facebook feature called Virtual Advertising Operations (VAO), resulting in 1,243 posts related to the theme of relationships. Among these, the most prominent sub-theme was bonding and bridging with friendship as the primary topic. To analyze the data, we used categorization and the detection of textual information. The study underscores Facebook's importance as a key platform where youth build and strengthen friendships. Examining how they use language highlights themes like loyalty, emotional sharing, and social connection that shape their interactions on the platform. These insights emphasize that adolescents use Facebook not just to communicate but to actively shape and express their social relationships. The study also discusses implications for language education from social media content to cultivate students’ pragmatic competence and to provide meaningful and real-world communication practice. Future studies are encouraged to explore other modes of digital interaction, such as images and multimedia.