Technical-Technological Dimension of Facebook: towards a Collective Affectivity

Abstract

Social and particularly, affective relationships and practices seem to shape and be reshaped at once by technical-technological devices, such as Facebook. The principal aim of this article is to account for the technical technological processes that transform Facebook members’ affectivity. Twelve ninth graders’ Communicational Practices in Facebook and their perceptions were collected and qualitatively studied. Findings suggest that ninth graders as Affective agents seem to construct a virtualized affective reality, exchanging their emotions and affections by three different operations namely; the grammatical operation, the dialectical operation and the rhetorical operation. Furthermore, Facebook members might not only be users, but also Affective Agents who assess and negotiate their affection Hyper-discourses. In so doing, they are able to build up a Collective Affectivity within the emerging Facebook cyber-field.

Keywords

• virtualization
• collective affectivity
• Facebook
• affective agent