What's an Emic?

The emic–etic duality has influenced the ways in which fields as diverse as personality psychology, consumer behavior, organizational science, and intercultural communication study cultural systems.

Emic and etic were coined by the linguistic anthropologist Kenneth L. Pike.  Pike applied the principles of linguistics to the problem of how and why language varies within and across cultures. The term emics conveys the idea that only members of a culture possess valid knowledge of their own language usage.

An emic unit is any physical or mental item regarded as meaningful, real, accurate, appropriate, coherent, or relevant by the culture members themselves. Thus, the emic approach to research always starts from the “inside” of a culture.....much like social media is used today.