Social media have a significant influence on the everyday practices and daily routines of contemporary families. Over the past decades, media and communication research have illustrated how digital technologies for interpersonal communication have altered the ways in which family members stay connected during the day (Chen & Katz 2009, Licoppé 2004) and experience and manage family relationships (Miller & Slater, 2000; Madianou & Miller, 2012). Yet, only limited knowledge is available about the digital language use of and generational differences in parent-teen texting.

This presentation engages with young peoples’ digital language practices in the context of the family. From a linguistic ethnographic perspective, it sheds light on digital mediated interactions and generational differences in contemporary family life. More specifically, it focuses on Copenhagen teenagers (16–18 year-olds) and their parents’ (33–56 years old) digital correspondences and on their metalinguistic accounts of different norms of digital language use in interviews. Based on analysis of these data, I argue that studying young peoples’ digital language practices in the context of the family provide a new and more nuanced take on the youth aspect of young peoples’ digital language practices. That is, by focusing on both parents and teenagers’ practices and metalinguistic reflections on generational differences and opposing styles of writing, researchers gain crucial knowledge about what is youthful and what is definitely not.