The Impact of Social Media on the Use of Code Mixing by Generation Z

Abstract

Generally, generation Z mixes English and Indonesia when communicating with each other. This sociolinguistic phenomenon called code-mixing impacts social media as part of the development of Information Communication Technology (ICT). Therefore, this study investigated the impact of social media on code-mixing by generation Z. This study was carried out at Serang Raya University, Indonesia, where English is the only foreign language used to teach students. Three hundred thirty-six students participated in this study (N=110, F=226). The qualitative data were collected through self-completed questionnaires and interviews. The research aims to highlight the contribution of social media in code-mixing and determine why this generation uses English and Indonesian in social media. The present study revealed that nine utterances with a high frequency were used. The causing factors and reasons behind this phenomenon were varied. In addition, the findings showed that individual factors were for the very high percentages (75%). Among them were social factors (15%) and cultural factors (10%). The results showed that the use of social media had an impact on code-mixing between Indonesian and English for Generation Z.