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The wannabees and their tribes: adolescence and distinction in Internet

Orkut is a virtual relationship network through which it is possible to identify a system of classification determined by the way users interact inside of the communities. The wannabee is one of the types that are part of this universe. The main goals of this article are to analyze how adolescence constructs its identity from distinction and social control processes in the Internet, taking the aspects related to gender and body as central issues for discussion, and to reflect on the meanings attributed, in this phase of life, to concepts as "life style" and "mood", inside two types of virtual communities: the "gothics", urban tribe representative of one given femininity, and the "pro-anas", strictly virtual, that defends anorexic practices as a life style.

Adolescence; Gender; Body; Cyberculture


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