Smile, photo! alcohol consumption and technology use by young people in a Spanish rural area

Abstract

The lifestyles and consumption of today are marked by increasingly global cultural patterns, and rural young people share the aspirations and needs of the postmodern western world. Rural spaces are not oblivious to the neoliberal leisure model of alcohol consumption that is the trend in cities, nor to the massive, connective use of modern networks. The principal objective of the present study is to find out how rural young men and women construct their social identity through their use and abuse of alcohol, as well as though their portrayal online in social networking sites. To this end, a qualitative methodology is used, by means of in-depth interviews (N=40) of young people (22 women and 18 men) between the ages of 18 and 24 who live in rural areas in the north of Extremadura (Spain). The results show how these practices become important identitarian elements for the young men and women, which contribute to their social inclusion in rural life, characterized by a blend of signs of today’s markedly global society mixed with the weight of traditional gender roles and strong social control.