Educação, saúde mental e o uso de redes sociais digitais: percepções de discentes de um curso de psicologia

Abstract

This doctoral thesis research in the history and memory of education aims to investigate the extent to which digital social networks can affect the mental health of those who use them and how education can mitigate this process. It is known that from the age of fire, through agricultural societies to the present day, there has been an improvement in technologies, making them increasingly sophisticated, as exemplified by the advent of the internet, the creation of digital social networks, and the definitive entry into the virtual and informational world, initiating a reality that has changed and continues to change, crucially, the way people live and interact in society. Currently, the use of digital social networks has gained notoriety due to its frequent use by people who have, in some way, access to digital platforms and/or applications on computers, laptops, tablets, and cell phones. Methodologically, this thesis is a qualitative research study regarding the problem, basic in nature, theoretical-empirical in genre, descriptive-exploratory in objective, and, in terms of procedural method, can be classified as a case study. Regarding data collection techniques, a literature review was used to address the theoretical part, and for the empirical part, direct observation and a semi-structured questionnaire applied to teachers and students of a psychology course were employed. Concerning analysis techniques, content analysis with critical reflective interpretation of the readings and narratives collected during the field research was applied. The results show that... (It is expected that, at the end of this research, the proposed objective will have been achieved, that is, to know to what extent and in what way digital social networks affect the mental health of those who use them and how education can and should mitigate this collective process). Finally, it is concluded that (ongoing project). The results show that the excessive and obsessive use of digital social networks directly and indirectly impacts people's mental health, contributing to the development of discouragement, deep sadness, social isolation, complaints of anguish, depression, stress, anxiety, verbalization of suicidal thoughts, weakening of social bonds, among other impacts. Finally, it is concluded that the uncontrolled use of digital social networks causes psychosocial suffering and can even be fatal, and the development of defense mechanisms for the healthy use of these tools is proposed. From this perspective, it is up to the user to be made aware that their mental health depends on the ability to recognize the risks and resist the dynamics of emotional control that structure digital social networks, recovering spaces of silence without the use of digital technologies, personal introspection and frequent social interaction. Another proposal considered viable involves education and school curricularization for the regulated use of digital social networks.