Os memes e as interações sociais na internet: uma interface entre práticas rituais e estudos de face

Abstract

The object of this study is the phenomenon known as ‘Internet memes’, produced within a virtual environment, in a website called <9gag>. The comments section was the main focus of analysis. From an interactional perspective on discourse, it has been investigated the way Internet meme replication signals ritual practices constitutive of this group and how it affects the way participants’ faces are co-constructed and negotiated in the course of interaction. Thus, rituals and faces claimed are seen as emergent practices that are sensitive to the interactional here-and-now of language use in this context. Meme-replication practices (understood as units of cultural transmission and dissemination of information, based on imitation), when analysed from the perspective of relational rituals (Kádár, 2013), have interactional effects that go beyond simply entertaining a group such as <9gag>. They help build and maintain the ethos of this virtual community, by giving membership status to those participants who abide by the interactional rules established through these practices. Participation and alignment with the group’s ritual practices have generated the feeling of belonging through identification among participants, legitimating them as members of this community, connected by the sharing of values disseminated by memes, the knowledge of the group’s practices and the symbolic representations constructed by the group. Moreover, it has been verified that through facework processes interactants model interactions within this community by (dis-)affiliating themselves with the types of face that emerge in this website.