Percepção de jovens estudantes sobre os impactos das mídias sociais digitais em seus estudos: uma análise de vídeos do youtube

Abstract

Digital social media occupy a central position in young people's lives and have influenced different dimensions of everyday life, including teaching and learning processes. In this context, this study aimed to understand how young students perceive the impacts of digital social media on their academic lives. This is a qualitative study developed through a literature review and content analysis of personal accounts published on the YouTube platform. Initially, nineteen videos related to the topic were selected, of which five comprised the corpus of analysis based on relevance and suitability to the research objectives. The analysis was grounded in the works of authors who discuss digital media, education, and digital culture, such as David Buckingham, Raquel Recuero, Maria da Graça Setton, Jonathan Haidt, and Vani Kenski, as well as the reflections presented in the documentary The Social Dilemma. The findings indicate that participants associate excessive use of digital social media with difficulties in maintaining concentration, fragmented attention, procrastination, loss of time awareness, reduced interest in activities requiring greater cognitive effort, such as reading and writing, and increased anxiety resulting from social comparison. The participants' accounts also reveal that students themselves recognize that these effects are related to the way digital platforms are designed, using algorithms and reward systems to maximize users' engagement and time spent online. It is concluded that understanding young people's perceptions of this issue contributes to broadening the debate on the challenges posed by digital social media to education and may support the development of pedagogical practices and initiatives aimed at promoting a more conscious use of these technologies.