Metaphors of virtual life

Abstract

Through the theoretical relationships between various contributions of semiotics, the theory of social discourses and the theory of conceptual metaphor, this paper present various crosses in order to reflect on social networks, especially in the construction modalities the user in the social network Facebook.
An illusion of horizontal social relations now proposes doing a “double” acting (“as if”) in the network, a user is presented as an identity-other. The qualities in the social network are the “footprints” of previous operations defined by the device itself; “choose” from a variety of limited resources, with some representation of space and time, affecting the construction and permanence of collective identification.
This paper focuses on exploring strategies construction of collective identification in social networks, not through a specific analysis or addressing a particular case, but rather exploring the general possibilities of the device through the interaction with / between users and the use of technical resources.