I started this project with the intention of seeing how gender norms and stereotypes that are persistent in the linguistic features of the real world have filtered down to a younger demographic, Generation Z. Generation Z, even more so than my Millennial generation, has been raised with technology, and the virtual world for most of their lives as functioned as a vehicle for socialization and by looking at how they interact with one another in the virtual world, I wished to see how gender has impacted this socialization.

I predicted originally that gender had a significant impact on this socialization, and that it could be seen through linguistic features like emojis, laughter representatives, profanity, capitalization, and conversational dominance. All of my predictions except for that regarding capitalization have been supported by my findings, which leads me to believe that gender has played a key role in how youths have learned to function in the virtual world.

The use of emojis, laughter representatives, profanity, and capitalization are indicative of something bigger, they indicate the power structures and linguistic norms expected of individuals based upon their gender. Gender bias and roles are perpetuated through language and this project suggests that that perpetuation is filtering down to younger generations and into computer mediated conversations despite the influence of technology.