Self nas redes sociais da Internet: a construção do eu virtual nas práticas de linguagem

Abstract

This research aims to analyze social media users’ acting on Facebook concerning the mechanisms they activate to construct a virtual self, from which they interact with others. We call this phenomenon “presentification”. Based on Linguistic Pragmatics and Symbolic Interactionism (GOFFMAN, 2011), we understand that Facebook is a stage where social actors perform to an omnipresent public, which can validate or discourage enunciative projects that individuals make about themselves. Therefore, we selected the social façade construction (GOFFMAN, 2011), the mechanisms of linguistic politeness (BROWN e LEVINSON, 1978; 1987) activated to keep these façades on, and social capital (PUTNAM, 1993) accrued from this movement as analytical categories from which the actors represent themselves. The analytical corpus is the production of a group of followers of the Facebook fan page O Lugar, and we analized the uses of the self presentation resources offered by that platform as constructive items for their virtual façades. Then we analyzed the writen content of the comments from these individuals to posts of the fan page, and finally we considered the number of reactions, answers and sharing to these posts and comments. The results show a strict relation between social façade and social capital, as well as an expressive coherence originated from the enunciative project practiced by part of the observed individuals. Furthermore, the mechanisms for linguistic politeness were employed to minimize possible damages to the façades constructed, which reinforces positive aspects of the self presented. Thus, the more successful the enunciative project and its defense are, the more related to that profile the social capital will be. This characteristic confers to the virtual self the validation of individuals themselves and the potential to influence the network of which they are part.