Os adolescentes na rede: uma reflexão sobre as comunidades virtuais

This article presents partial results of a study conducted with some Orkut communities formed by adolescents. It also wonders if virtual communities work as a space for expression of singularities, contributing to the formation of reflective and critical adolescents, or, rather, they serve to their segregation to the consumer market. Also, it presents some data collected from the communities of Orkut and a reflection on this research, based onsocial psychology, psychoanalysis, sociology and philosophy authors that examine contemporary culture. Then it concludes that, despite the different uses of social networking, there is in these communities the prevalence of a standardization of speeches, images and social meanings, a segregationist logic that erases the singularities.