Pops e famosinhos: identidade e performance de jovens na internet.

Abstract

This work is the result of a broad research about highly popular young internet individuals whose actions can gather thousands of fans in their social media profiles and outside the internet as well. Through the use of theoretical contributions from social sciences, we made an analysis of the identity construction process and performance of pops and famosinhos, terms created by these young people to allow their identification on the social media in the cities of João Pessoa and São Paulo. As part of a reflexive process, pops and famosinhos aim to be different from their own followers and from other popular teenagers on the internet through their actions expressed by pictures of themselves and posts on facebook. To them, the pictures are the main reason of their popularity in the web and they manipulate the photography in order to achieve a desirable effect. In this sense, their personal profiles are Medias, communication vehicles which they feed with information about their style and their unusual attitude. To these boys and girls who were informants of this research, the youth of nowadays is freer than ever, as the internet allows faceto-face communication with people from other cities, states and even countries. They regulate their own media by themselves and, in such perspective, the network becomes a suitable space for the conception of their identities as young people. Therefore, to be young for these agents is to have fun and enjoy life, once they acknowledge that the identity of being a pop or famosinho is a phase of their lives that will soon be over.