The rise of smartphones and the internet has transformed social interactions, merging physical and digital spaces. Portuguese people spend an average of eight hours online daily, with deaf individuals shifting from in-person to digital spaces due to a loss of interest in deaf club attendance. Social media fosters linguistic contact with global languages like English, and International Sign (IS) between deaf people. Many deaf users embrace these shifts, while others – mostly older signers – strive to preserve LGP.

IS, historically used in deaf international events, expanded through social media and the pandemic. Language shift usually occurs by replacing minority languages with dominant ones. LGP, probably in use before establishing the first deaf school in Portugal (1823), was strengthened primarily in schools and deaf clubs and later weakened by changes in educational policies for the deaf.

The study questions whether LGP is undergoing an actual transformation and whether young people alone are responsible for such an eventual shift. This study examines IS adoption in Portugal through 60 interviews and linguistic ethnography (digital and in-person). On the one hand, the results show two main ideologies, one valuing ‘traditional’ LGP and another a more modern “hybridisation” of LGP and IS. It also shows different types of usages, by signers consciously alternating between LGP and IS and those using primarily IS due to perceived prestige or isolation. On the other hand, linguistic ethnography reveals an increasing use of IS during in-person gatherings and, most striking, during digital interactions.

The decrease in intergenerational transmission and the rising influence of social media suggest a possible language shift involving more than just younger generations. Ideologies concerning the value and use of traditional and modern LGP are rapidly reacting to the increasing borrowing from IS in the in-person and online communication by deaf signers of all ages.