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Comunicar Journal 43: Media Prosumers (Vol. 22 - 2014)
Common uses of Facebook among adolescents from different social sectors in Buenos Aires city
Joaquín Linne
In this article, we analyze the common uses that adolescents of the City of Buenos Aires display in the Facebook platform. From the review of the state of the art and the empirical evidence gathered by 30 in-depth interviews, 24 months of daily virtual observation and the analysis of 200 profiles in Facebook, it is displayed that for both groups of adolescents the social network is their central entertainment and communication environment. At the same time, the primary uses they give to Facebook within the site refer to self presentation, interchanging personal information between friends, sex-affective relationship searches, and exploring different aspects of their sociability and identity. We examine the most «popular» posts between adolescents (photos, personal texts). Besides, we describe the most usual ludic-communication uses: chat, upgrading status, photographic prosumption and streaming. In this sense, we acknowledge that daily use of the resource bythis population is the sharing of intimate performances with the goal of increasing sociability between peers and accomplish a higher visibility both in and out of the site. Thus, by studying the images in the timeline’s of adolescents, evidence is exposed showing that gender representations are in conflict with traditional models and new forms of masculinity and femininity.
Keywords
Internet, Facebook, social networking, adolescents, popular sectors, self-presentation, Intimacy