The current development of social networks is the primary means of communication and information for many individuals in contemporary societies. Social networks become the paradigm of the hypertext, in which the written word, images and audiovisual material keep their users informed and entertained, fusing in this way mass media and personal media with pragmatic means of communication with entertainment.

Social networks reconfigure the social mechanism for exchanging information and communication in contemporary western societies. I will approach the analysis of those aspects tackling the consequences that they imply for the socialization process, identity and social relations amongst the individuals that regularly use social networks.

Social networks are the paradigm of the information societies, but with their rapid development have aroused certain paradoxes, contradictions and myths ¿are social networks social or asocial contexts? ¿are social networks offering a different version of the physical society in a virtual environment or are they simply reproducing the ‘society of atoms’? ¿is the information and communication produced in social networks negatively influenced by privacy problems and fears?

Social networks are constituted nowadays as one of the main sources of entertainment amongst young generations and also as a source of wealth and power; consequently, a theoretical-practical analysis of these aspects is very illustrative of the present and future of our society.