Semantic Restructuring of Mobile Social Networks in Everyday Life of the Iranian Youth

Given the widespread use of mobile social networks by the youth, the present study seeks to redefine the meaning of these networks in everyday life of these individuals. This research is carried out within the framework of qualitative method. For data collection, semi-structured interviewing technique is used, and data was analyzed using the grounded theory approach. The statistical population of the research consisted of the young mobile social network users in Tabriz City. The purposive sampling method was used for selecting participants. The findings suggest that the youth use social networks for a variety of things like entertainment and fun, news and information, sexual communication with the opposite gender, virtual adventure, etc. using mobile social networks has resulted in widespread and sometimes contradictory social and cultural consequences for the youth such as changing in Hijab and clothing, erosion of religious beliefs, consumerism intensification, erosion of in-group social capital (reduction of family and peer relationships, generation gap, formation of new divisions between wives and husbands), facilitating, maintaining, and expanding social relations (increasing social capital), which can be put under the category of norm-breaking/norm-constructing core.