Translanguaging, Digital Identity, and Multilingual Meaning-Making among Pakistani University Students on Social Media

Abstract

Social media platforms have become central sites where young Pakistanis negotiate language, identity, and belonging. Drawing on translanguaging theory and the notion of polymedia, this study examined how university students at The Islamia University of Bahawalpur (IUB) deploy their multilingual repertoires on social media and how these practices relate to the construction of digital identity. A convergent mixed-methods design was used with 60 students (34 female, 26 male) aged 18–29 years. Data were collected through a 24-item Translanguaging and Digital Identity Questionnaire (TDIQ), a corpus of 600 consented social media posts (10 per participant) drawn from WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X, and semi-structured interviews with 12 participants. Quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, independent-samples t tests, and one-way ANOVA; corpus posts were coded for script and communicative function; and interviews were analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis. Results showed that 70.3% of posts contained at least one translanguaging instance and that Roman Urdu–English mixing was the dominant pattern (46.3%). Participants reported a high frequency of translanguaging (M = 3.79) and strong agreement with its communicative functions (M = 3.88). Translanguaging frequency correlated strongly with digital identity performance (r = .76, p < .001). Female students reported significantly more frequent translanguaging than male students, while no differences emerged across first-language groups. Five qualitative themes positioned Roman Urdu as the “home script” of the digital self, Saraiki as a resource of intimacy and regional pride, and English as an aspirational register used for audience design. The study argues that translanguaging should be recognized as a legitimate meaning-making resource in Pakistani higher education rather than as evidence of linguistic deficiency.