Edited by Daniel N. Silva and Jacob L. Mey
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 319] 2021
► pp. 259–282
This article addresses the tension between the two contrasting forces of adaptation, introduced in Mey (1998, 2009). Many aspects of Thai people’s day-to-day interactions through/with LINE, a popular internet-based chat application, challenge the premises that humans should have control over technology (adaptability) rather than letting technology force limits on human’s affordances (adaptivity). My discussion will exhibit how Thai speakers operate LINE to achieve different purposes, both to the benefit and the detriment of themselves and one another, and despite unfavourable consequences from using or interacting with LINE, either known or unknown to them. These practices illustrate changes to various aspects of the Thai mindset and how relationships, identities and interactions among Thais in the modern world are constructed, negotiated and contested.