Entre “likes” e postagens: conteúdos acessados e veiculados no YouTube por crianças do 4° ano dos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental

Abstract

Comparing the relationships of children with technology at the end of the last century and children at the end of the second decade of the 21th century, we observed that the main change has occurred in the way as little children interact with technology. Amid so many possibilities of the digital “world”, the YouTube influences children's identity constitutions in postmodern culture. Therefore, the aim of this research is to investigate the content produced, analyzed and accessed by children in this video sharing platform, understanding the impacts on the ways of being and existing child in the contemporaneity. To turn the listed objectives possible, we guided ourselves by an exploratory and qualitative analysis, with thirty children from a public and private school in the city of João Pessoa - Paraíba (PB). Initially, we applied semi-structured questionnaires to make a general survey of internet and YouTube usage among 4th grade students of Elementary School (First Years) between the two schools. In addition, we used the case study technique to investigate the YouTube channels of the six found children, to perceive what the influence the youtubers have on the content shared by them. Within the public and private schools, the answers indicated that 100% of children access the internet. Consequently, 100% of children also claimed to watch YouTube videos, demonstrating a strong digital culture. In general, channel analysis has allowed us to certify a unified language among the child youtubers, as a reflection of the channels, content and languages of the accessed youtubers. Therefore, the possibilities of using YouTube are attractive to children, giving them autonomy to enjoy sharing, commenting, and creating narratives, at the same time, as these possibilities influencing them to recreate their way of being and existing on the contemporaneity.