LANGUAGE CHANGE AND VARIATION ACROSS DIGITAL COMMUNICATION PLATFORMS: A LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF INSTAGRAM

In this study, it is examined patterns of code-switching, adoption of slang, lexical innovations, and multimodal elements in captions, comments, and hashtags among young Uzbek users on Instagram. Quantitative surveys of multilingual young adults in Kokand, Uzbekistan, are combined with qualitative analysis of public posts from influencers in the lifestyle, education, and marketing domains as part of a mixed-methods design. The results show that Uzbek, English, and Russian are frequently combined with platform-driven semantic changes (e.g., redefined terms for followers, content, and private messages) and informal syntactic patterns driven by visual-text interaction. Mixed tags, emojis, and acronyms are often used by users to adapt global trends, resulting in hybrid registers that represent local identities and social connections. Greater linguistic diversity is correlated with heavy daily engagement, particularly among younger demographics that lead in the use of slang and expressive forms. Instagram becomes a dynamic space for identity negotiation, speeding up multilingual flexibility in response to interactive and algorithmic limitations. While comments allow for smooth multilingual conversations catered to the needs of the audience, captions condense stories with artistic flair. These trends show how the platform supports linguistic vitality in a variety of non-Western digital contexts by encouraging creative evolution without undermining fundamental communication norms.