Estética, moralidade e política no consumo de dispositivos eletrônicos e jogos digitais em um grupo de Facebook brasileiro

Abstract

This master's thesis seeks to understand the relationships fostered by the consumption of digital games, electronic devices, and content associated with the gamer universe. For this purpose, the Brazilian Facebook group "Grupo para pessoas pobres com computadores ruins 5.0" was chosen as the primary field of investigation. The group's posts and comments were analyzed through participant observation, perambulações, and acompanhamentos, which facilitated contact with the group's members and led to in-depth interviews. The research reveals that the consumption of these goods and media, goes beyond mere economic transactions, embedding itself within complex sociocultural negotiations. The in-depth analysis allowed for the observation that group participants were constantly navigating and shaped by aesthetic, political, moral, and affective constructions related to consumption—particularly an aesthetic notion of what it means to be both poor and a gamer in Brazil, as well as access to technological goods and digital games in discussions on the morality of consuming “pirated” games.