Entre duas rodas e uma tela:a sociabilidade na rede social Tornadeiros

Abstract

From the understanding of new social possibilities enabled by the Internet, this study aims to investigate the sociability in social networks through the development of social capital in these networks. We sought to understand the motivations that lead social relations be constructed and maintained in the virtual space and determine the factors that make such relations materialize in the offline space. To this end, we conducted a case study of a social network of motorcyclists, the site Tornadeiros. We manage to grasp the context of interaction between members of this network and how the strengthening of social capital becomes a driver of relations displacement from the virtual environment to the urban space, determining the sedimentation of emotional bonds between individuals, initially thought as banal and ephemeral, given the space-time gap between these actors. To explore these dimensions, we conducted an ethnographic analysis on the cyberspace and then on urban space, seeking to illuminate the qualitative analysis of social relations. Cyberspace ethnography consisted of an online survey to determine the profile of the social network members and the compilation of all posts available in the collective memory of the site, that were further processed to determine the topology of the network of interactions among members. From this material, we selected 17 speeches, articulating discourse analysis with the conclusions obtained from the graph produced by the network interaction of the site. Finally, on a second moment of ethnographic work, we compared our results with the face to face interviews, realizing the establishment and maintenance of social relations from the social capital developed in the network.