Facebook social uses by young Cubans on the island

Abstract

It proposes an approach to the social uses of the social networking site (SNS) Facebook made by a group of young Cubans residents in the country, as a result of a qualitative research of an empirical-descriptive nature. The virtual ethnography is the main methodological strategy and it is complemented with the application of different techniques like the documentary and literature review, the semi-structured interview and the discussion group. As a part of the analysis’ results, are referred some of the determinant factors of the social uses of Facebook and are described the practices of the young associated with the better use of the techno-communicatives codes of the computing platform, the content production and the collective construction of meaning in this particular network environment. Among the main conclusions of the study, the relevance of the category social uses for the analysis of socio-historical and cultural processes mediated by and mediators of ICT is reaffirmed.

Keywords

• usos sociales
• tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC)
• sitios de redes sociales, Facebook, jóvenes cubanos, etnografía virtual