Admirável phone novo: percepções de jovens em situação de pobreza sobre o consumo de smartphones.

Abstract

This work deals with a qualitative research about the perceptions of young people in situation of poverty on the consumption of smartphones. Based on the understanding of current societies as consumer societies and the fact that smartphone is configured as a privileged means of communication in our time, we consider that the (non) consumption of these mobile devices has several implications for people in general, and for the students of the Carmosina School, in particular, being this a public high school of Sobral - CE. Thus, the objective that guides this work is to know the perceptions of the students of the Carmosina School on the consumption of smartphones. We also aim to investigate whether these youngsters have smartphones, how they acquired them and which factors influenced the choice of product; to know the uses that the students make of the smartphone and; to understand the importance of this device in the lives of these students. We start from the hypothesis that smartphone has become a common property for the population, especially for the young people, who are instigated to consume the latest launches of the mobile technology, behavior that can be observed in young people in situation of poverty. In order to contextualize our object and to base our analysis, we carried out a bibliographical and documentary research on the categories contemplated in this work, using authors such as Bauman, Baudrillard, Campbell, Marx, Lipovetsky, Adorno, Horkheimer, Thompson, Guareschi, Nascimento, Sawaia, Demo, Green, among others. We also conducted field research, which is a key element of our work. As data collection instruments, we used the participant observation and applied an open questionnaire with two classes of last year of Carmosina High School, one of the morning shift and the other one of the afternoon. The questionnaire data were categorized through the Thematic Analysis and analyzed based on the theoretical reference used.