Infância, consumo e mídia: um mapa das múltiplas mediações de crianças visibilizadas nas redes sociais on-line

Abstract

The media has been identified, mainly since the consumption of television, as the protagonist in the process of disappearance of childhood. In continuity, the information and communication technologies and the ubiquitous access to contents published on the network potentiated the clashes in the discursive field that envolves the changes from modern to contemporary childhood. Seen as vulnerable and fragile subjects, who are losing their essence in the face of this new category of consumption, or as empowered individuals, children are constantly placed in narratives that debate what is appropriate for them, and what does not match their condition. In view of this situation, this thesis relates children's communication processes on social media on the internet to the emergence of childhood in contemporary times. We seek to identify which structures, meanings and practices related to the consumption of social networking sites limit the way in which children can act, and enable their practices in the social construction of childhood. Based on this problem, we argue that contemporary childhood is constituted by a process of reconfiguration mediated by the logics of material and symbolic consumption, initiated in the cultural globalization of the 20th century, and by the communicative mediations of culture, in the roles of technicality and mediatization. Both populate children's socialization processes and organize practices and meanings that define identities, peer cultures, globalized cultures and unequal ways of experiencing childhood, supported by socioeconomic and political contexts. In addition, we point to other circuits of action and mediation that draw a continuity to the modern definitions of childhood and/or are also determinants for its understanding in contemporary times. Among them, playfulness; peer culture; visual culture; intergenerational relations; surveillance dynamics; and sociability parameters from the point of view of social, economic and cultural capital (BOURDIEU, 1986; RECUERO, 2009). The theoretical-methodological contribution is based on Structuration Theory (GIDDENS, 2003), Childhood and Children Studies (BUCKINGHAM, 2007; CORSARO, 2011; PROUT; JAMES, 1997; SARMENTO, 2008, 2013; SARMENTO; PINTO, 1997; QVORTRUP, 2010) e na Teoria das Mediações (MARTÍN-BARBERO, 2002, 2009a, 2009b, 2014) and Mediation Theory (MARTÍNBARBERO, 2002, 2009a, 2009b, 2014). The results are verified after the application of Thematic Content Analysis (BARDIN, 2011) to the transcription of the dialogues of six focus groups (N = 28) carried out in two schools in the city of Natal, with children between the ages of 10 and 12, students of public and private schools. The qualitative stage is complemented by the interpretation of quantitative data produced and made available by Cetic.br regarding the panorama of information and communication technologies’ consumption in Brazil. Based on the experiences of the participating children, we propose the concept of nostalgic childhood to demarcate the existence of continuities and discontinuities related to the modern ideal of childhood. The concept is presented as an operative notion that is being explored and as an ongoing process, which must be understood and problematized in line with the transformations, emergencies and tensions of a continuous time.