Abstract:

Premise- In this paper we analyze websites and the Social Network “Facebook” created in 2008 in the first meeting of young people from the Mediterranean area and it represents an useful insight on topics and problems young people want to talk about in a free electronic environment, while reflecting on their identities and future.

Aim of this research is to investigate the use subscribers make of this website and the related Social Network Facebook: we’ll analyze frequency of participation, geographical provenance and age of participants and, in particular, contents of posts (written in neo-Latin languages, but also in Arabic and English): this last analysis will apply the SPAD technique. Worldwide, the Web has become one of the most powerful tools for information and exchange of any kind. In agreement with Zhang & von Dran’s theory (2002), we’ll analyze the MeYouMe website, too.

Results and discussion- From the results emerges that most of the discussions include the interest for the current economical and political crisis and for the problems that globalization brings, but also include many friendship and relational bonds which are characteristic of juvenile life like for example meetings, parties, manifestations with the intent of making stronger the active participation to the organizational problems of the voluntary service association which brings youths toward behaviors of solidarity. It must be stressed that the informal bonds, linked to the immediateness of youths’ life and in particular those which rise from friendship, have the advantage of constituting a “weak” connection which, thanks to this very characteristic, contributes to the unification and sharing of both the everyday life and of the participation to great events. All this brings youths to feel united and to recognize the importance of the difference of their own an of the others.

Results showed, with respect to the narrative repertories and discursive modes expressed by young people through the social network Facebook, a greater uniformity in content sharing: a sense of group movement orienting with its cultural substrate the dialogue and leading to social changes and the exchange of knowledge and information. Text taken from the websites emphasized the need of a schematic and clear way of expression. Web sites use a language that maintains a kind of description divided into thematic fields, thereby manifesting greater organization and compactness compared to Facebook.

Keywords:

Facebook, globalization, young people, web sites, juvenile life.