The soyboy is a label given to men who do not fall into culturally idealized versions of masculinity, specifically men who are politically left leaning and embrace alternative masculinities. This discourse surrounding the soyboy participates in the larger symbolic boundary that upholds and reifies traditional masculinity. The soyboy discourse engages with cultural knowledge that reinforces the gendered and political hierarchies that are upheld through traditional masculinity. This project outlines the soyboy discourse through two analytic components: Component I analyzes digital spaces, defining the soyboy and how the discourse is used and Component II explores how that discourse influences face-to-face interactions, reinforcing inequalities. Through a content analysis of Twitter.com, Component I answers the question of how the soyboy discourse is used and which structures of power it is reproducing. Through interview analysis with eighteen (18) young adults, Component II answers the question of how the discourse is seen in face-to-face interactions and what that means compared to online interactions. Component I details how social inequalities are a part of the soyboy discourse and Component II identifies how that discourse shapes and influences human interactions. The final section of this project outlines how the soyboy discourse reifies existing inequalities through mundane or "low-stakes'' interactions. Through the use of Component I and II's data, the final section examines the process through which inequalities are continued and preserved. / Doctor of Philosophy / Social media is often perceived as a separate part of life compared to our day-to-day, face-to-face interactions. The mundane or "low-stakes" interactions of social media are not seen as impactful in comparison to how our face-to-face interactions are perceived. This dismissal of online interactions limits our ability to understand the social world. Through an investigation of the phrase "soyboy," this project outlines how interactions in online spaces move from digital space to face-to-face interactions. The first component of the project analyzed social media posts from a collection of Tweets containing the phrase "soyboy" from 2015 to 2021. Component I defines what a soyboy is and points out how the use of "soyboy" contributes to certain social inequalities. Component II moved to observe how the discourse can be seen in our daily interactions. Through interviews with eighteen (18) young adults, Component II details the way online discourses influence how people interact with each other. The final section of this project connects the findings from Component I and II to explain a cycle of cultural reproduction, which reifies and preserves social and cultural inequalities.

La recherche porte sur une étude théorique des réseaux sociaux numériques dans l'état actuel des connaissances. La problématique est discutée en s’appuyant sur un large panel d’auteurs et de pensées allant des années soixante-dix jusqu’à nos jours. En effet, les réseaux sociaux qui sont passés de startup à multinationales au cours des années deux-mille ont radicalement changé le paysage des médias et de la communication entre les individus. À partir de ce constat, nous pouvons nous demander si l'utilisation des réseaux sociaux influence directement les constructions identitaires et sociales des adolescents ? En outre, cette étude démontre comment les identités fabriquées en ligne constituent par la suite, un facteur prépondérant dans la représentation sociale et identitaire des jeunes. L’élève adapte ses identités et ses datas au sein de ses espaces numériques par la réception faite, puis acquise des innovations techniques. Les données recueillies auprès des élèves et les hypothèses formulées dégagent des perspectives futures. En effet, les connaissances numériques du fait religieux circulant sur internet constituent un élément important dans la construction identitaire des élèves. C’est dans les espaces numériques que les élèves développent les datas identités. Premièrement de manière active par l’usage des réseaux sociaux numériques, puis de manière passive à travers les cookies et les recommandations par algorithme. Le rôle grandissant d’Internet dans le processus identitaire, avec l’usage massif des réseaux sociaux et des applications numériques de mieux en mieux maitrisées par les élèves, soulève un certain nombre d’enjeux éducatifs et pédagogiques. Autrement dit les enjeux et défis pour l’Éducation Nationale s’articulent autour de l’usage in situ et ex situ des espaces numériques. / Through a theoritical study of social and digital media, this reseacrh work introduces first, the knowledge produced so far, on it. This work is based on a wide range of authors and thoughts from the seventies till today’s ones, in order to discuss the main issue. Indeed, the social media that turned from startup to multinational companies throughout the years 2000’s, have dramatically changed the landscape of media and communication among individuals. Starting from this observation, one has to ask the question of whether social media, has a direct influence on teenagers’ identity and social construction. This study demonstrates in fact, how Online identities are made thereafter, a key factor of youths’ social and identity representation. The student adapts his identity and his data within his digital spaces according to the reception produced and then acquired of the devices innovations. By framing the collected data from students within the assumed assumptions frame, future prospects are made out. As a matter of a fact, digital knowledge of the religious fact circulating on Internet, is an important element in the identity construction of students. It is in digital spaces that students develop the data identities. First they do it actively through the use of social and digital media, then passively through cookies and recommendations made by algorithm. The growing role of Internet in the identity process, with the massive use of social and digital media applications better mastered by students, raises a number of educational and pedagogical issues. In other words, the challenges and what is at stake for the French National Education, revolves about the use in situ and ex situ of the digital spaces.

La Haute Autorité pour la Diffusion des Œuvres et la Protection des Droits sur internet (HADOPI) a reçu du législateur en 2009 la mission de discipliner les actes de contrefaçon de biens culturels sur internet. L'objectif central de la thèse est de produire un récit empirique de la genèse de cet instrument d'action publique comme expérience de gouvernement d'internet et des internautes. Bien que modeste et circonscrit, le problème posé par le téléchargement illicite va générer un débordement d'ampleur des cadrages de l'action publique, historiquement traduits par le droit de propriété littéraire et artistique. L'effet politique du numérique, conséquence déterritorialisée de la globalisation, du libéralisme et de la technologie, est de réinterroger le rapport entre souveraineté et discipline. Entre l'impasse des Mesures Techniques de Protection, les normes supra-nationales, les détournements des usagers/amateurs, la force collective des ayants droit, l'inaltérabilité du droit de propriété et les militants de la liberté d'accès à la culture, les pouvoirs publics ont dû inventer et innover pour organiser, à la manière d'un laboratoire, une action collective de fabrication d'un instrument d'action publique dont l'un des buts est d'étendre une valeur forte de l'État-nation français : la défense de l'exception culturelle. Les internautes sont-ils des hommes gouvernables ? En construisant une représentation de l'usager d'internet, en prônant l'obéissance, en modifiant les comportements par le biais de divers leviers progressifs d'incitation (de l'information à la sanction pénale) et en produisant autant de comportement de contournements et de résistance, la HADOPI produit le résultat politique d'inaugurer une tentative inédite, fragile, peu compacte mais pionnière de gouverner internet et les internautes. / The High Authority for Transmission of Creative Works and Copyright Protection on the Internet (HADOPI) was adopted in 2009 with the mission to discipline acts of intellectual property infringement on the internet. The main purpose of this thesis is to produce an empirical account of the creation of this new law (an instrument of public action as an experience of internet governance and internauts). While it is a somewhat minor public issue, illegal downloading creates a myriad of issues across the framework of public action, historically recognised as literary and artistic property rights. The political effects of the digital age, deterritorialised consequences of globalisation, liberalism and technology necessitate a rethinking of the relationship between sovereignty and discipline. The gridlock between DRM; supranational norms; the hijacking of content by users; the collective power of rights holders; the unalterable nature of intellectual property and the militants for free access to culture; the public authorities had to invent and innovate an instrument of public action. The goal of which is to extend an added value of the French nation state: the defense of the cultural exception. Are internauts governable? In constructing a representation of the internet user, through promoting obedience, and by modifying behaviour through incremental incitation (from being informed to being penalised) and by producing as much unwanted behaviour, the HADOPI has effected the political result of inaugurating the first ever attempt (albeit fragile, yet pioneering) to govern the internet and internauts.

Research over the last several decades offers clear evidence that mothers experience considerable pressure in carrying out the expectations of contemporary mothering, including expanded responsibilities relating to child and family health (Hays, 1996; Wolf, 2013). While we know that these pressures produce negative impacts, we know less about the strategies and tools mothers use to cope with these anxieties as they try to "do it right" (Villalobos, 2014). At the same time, research suggests that mothering is increasingly digitally-embedded, as mothers look to the internet and social media for information and support (Schoppe-Sullivan et al., 2017). This study thus explores how mothers use Facebook groups to inform health and parenting decisions. Drawing on data generated through a digital ethnography incorporating 18 months of participant observation, discourse analysis, and interviews with 29 mothers across two sets of divergent, specialized sets of Facebook groups (focusing on “evidence-based” and “natural” health and parenting), I advance three key, interconnected arguments. First, I apply theories of boundaries and boundary-work to show how specialized Facebook groups become persuasive ideological spaces for mothers who seek certainty around their healthcare beliefs and decisions. Next, I apply the concept of echo chambers to argue that mothers involved with these specialized Facebook groups engage in siloed health learning that shapes health beliefs, decisions, and even conversations with healthcare providers. Finally, I show how mothers engage in a form of digitally-mediated emotion management by turning Facebook groups that confirm their parenting ideology in order to alleviate anxieties associated with neoliberalism and individualist parenting, and to feel better about their maternal performance. I ultimately conclude that the turn to digital platforms for certainty, reassurance, and good feelings is both a logical expression and a reflection of the latest wave of maternal responsibilization.

The diploma thesis deals with the sources of trust in artificial intelligence, and how these sources are conditioned by social representations. It examines what risks the user is aware of when using artificial intelligence and how various factors affect the user's thinking. Artificial intelligence is represented in my work by intelligent virtual assistants (IVA). Based on semi-structured research interviews with their users, I have identified as the main sources of trust: neutrality, belief in the future, fulfillment of expectations and closeness. The first two sources are constant and based on social structure, while the last two sources of trust are based directly on user experience and are variable over time. It was also found that social representations have a significant impact on sources of trust. I divided all social representations into three categories - mechanicality, personification, intangibility, according to which the user's perception of artificial intelligence could be assessed and, based on that, his thinking about it. Because of this, I have proved that the trust of users is conditioned by social representations. An important part of trust is risk awareness. In my work, I have identified six main risks that users are aware of: unexpected software error, mechanical error, misuse of...