The Virtual Network Facebook: Display of Contemporary Subjectivity and Lack of Social Ties

Abstract

The objective of the research carried out at the University institute of Health sciences of the Dr. H. Barceló Foundation was to analyze the use that subjects make of the social network Facebook and what function it fulfills in the current era. For this study, the developments of psychoanalysis were articulated and complemented with other scientific disciplines. It started from the assumption that social networks do not represent a solution to the lack of relationship between subjects, wherewith the conformation of a virtual community is questioned. The field work was carried out with students of the different careers of the above mentioned institute, from interviews and observation of the social network Facebook. From the analysis of the information gathered, it could be concluded that Facebook or any other social network does not make up a community; rather they are the sum of the self of each subject. They do not replace the lack of relationship but, rather, deplay it in a privileged way.