Percepções de vigilância e controle sociais atrelados ao uso dos dispositivos comunicacionais móveis

Abstract

This article presents part of a qualitative exploratory approach research that aimed at understanding how the users of mobile communication devices manage, from everyday use, questions related to interactional practices. The sample consisted of 120 university students from six cities in the northeastern region of Brazil. In this text, we present the discussions about the categorical set entitled Perceptions of surveillance and control actions, composed of the categories: (i) surveillance and control over everyday life; (ii) surveillance and control of social presence; (iii) surveillance and control in relation to situations of physical proximity; and (iv) surveillance in relation to data control. The results indicate the existence and development of new social monitoring practices, facilitated by the presence of constraints and technical resources associated to the expansion of mobile communication, with direct and indirect consequences to the processes of social adjustment of individuals, with emphasis on the influence of social expectations arising from face-to-face communications in the negotiation of interactive practices mediated by mobile devices. Keywords: social interactions, mediated interactions, social surveillance, social control, reflexivity, mobile communications devices, young university students.