Teenagers Politeness Codes, Netiquette and Parents Role in the Age of Technology: A Pragmatics Perspective

This study depicts issues of teenagers’ politeness in the age of technology and explains the role of parents behavior in ameliorating or exacerbating their children’s impoliteness or violation of netiquette. A growing number of parents are becoming concerned that the Internet is teaching their children poor social attitudes and improper interactional habits in the real world. The goal has been to show that parents behavior and attitude can play a very significant role in the formation of teenagers politeness codes and practices. The authors present the results of an empirical study of Iranian teenagers’ discourse and interaction in cyberspace, focusing on their use of (Im)politeness principles and the influence of parents behavior. This has been carried out through an in-depth analysis and comprehensive comparison of politeness strategies and discourse used by a group of 40 teenagers (13-17 years of age) in Telegram, Messenger and video recordings of classroom communication activities. It is confirmed in the present study that cyber-medium may create a kind of distance and impunity that encourage people to shed their inhibitions and act differently than they would during comparable face-to-face encounters, but still well trained children in families who had a great role models for polite behavior rarely violate others’ face and dignity in real world communication and likewise they usually respect netiquette guidelines in cyberspace.