Youth and Social Networks. A spatial appropriation of the virtual world

Abstract

Today's young people experience social networks with a different intensity than previous generations, establishing a gap in understanding between the youth world and the adult world. This leads to the question: How do young people relate to their social networks? For the research, semi-directive open interviews were conducted with a group of young Chileans from the metropolitan region, who at the time of the interview were between 18 and 22 years old. The findings show that young people in their stories describe their experience with the virtual world by contextualizing it spatially. Young people discover the virtual through games and discuss it with other subjects. The spatiality of social networks makes them habitable, which implies that it can affect the social construction of the subjects.