Abstract

LUCAS, Lorena Schettino et al. "Suicide?! Why Would I Care?": Social Representations of Suicide on Facebook Users Comments. Estud. pesqui. psicol. [online]. 2021, vol.21, n.1, pp. 196-216. ISSN 1808-4281.  http://dx.doi.org/10.12957/epp.2021.59380.

In recent years, suicide has been configured as a topic of great interest in social media, being the subject of numerous reports and public debates. In this study, the objective was to apprehend the social representations of suicide among Facebook users, through the analysis of comments in news published by newspapers in the state of Espírito Santo. Therefore,  2803 comments were collected related to suicide news, published between 2015 and 2018. The data were analyzed through the Descending Hierarchical Classification and Correspondence Factor Analysis, using the Alceste software. The results indicated that the representational field of suicide is organized in three social representations: (i) suicide as a religious issue, (ii) as a phenomenon associated with the new generations, and (iii) as a selfish act, with negative reflexes to the functioning of cities and the population routine. The social representations of suicide in the context of cyberculture are discussed from the anchoring and objectification processes. It hopes to contribute to broadening the debate on the subject, in view of the need to redefine practices that still refer it to the place of a social taboo.

Keywords : suicide; social representations; media; internet; social networks.

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