The tribe of memes. A virtual territory of inclusion-exclusion among adolescents

Abstract

Memes constitute symbolic resources which are especially significant for adolescents, because they are able to summarize aspects shared at local and global level. This article presents the results of an online ethnography which evidences, on the one hand, how such parodic resources are expressed when creating tribal identities and strategies of social inclusion-exclusion and, on the other hand, the epistemological and methodological suitability of not separating the creation and the consumption of contents from the production of sense, in the study of adolescent practices on the Web.