Les xarxes socials digitals com a lloc de sociabilitat: reflexions a partir d’una recerca etnogràfica amb joves

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present some preliminary results of an ethnographic research with young people with migration experiences, More specifically, I present an analysis of their sociability and self-presentation practices. Calling into question the separation between online and offline activities in these youths’ everyday lives, I focus on the relation between sociability practices on the social network site Facebook and stigmatising processes experienced as such in relation to their categorisation as “dropouts” and “immigrants”. The data gathered points to a production of place which is in articulation with the rest of everyday places and has specific characteristics at the same time. The search for visibility and respectability emerged as central in a similar fashion as it has been found in researches that don’t include online relational contexts, reinforcing the idea of articulation. Imagination practices have also emerged as important, and are related to spatio-temporal dimensions including a “here” and an imagined “there”, as well as a past, an everyday life in the present, and aspirations for their futures.