Processos de influências sociais no ambiente online : análise da youtuber Jout Jout (original) (raw)

With the growing impact of the Internet in everyday life of society, a number of important questions arise amid the tangle of information that emerges daily and constantly. Social networking sites, in particular, are largely responsible for moving a large amount of this information, impacting the social and individual life worldwide. However, it is interesting to note that some individuals generate more impact than others. Why is that? With this question, this dissertation investigated the occurrence of social influence process in the online environment, which has the quality to be measured more easily, both qualitatively and quantitatively, due to the tools found in social networking sites made available by softwares, that are groups of algorithms. Through the investigation of the sociological understanding of the ideas of influence and social capital by Parsons and Bourdieu respectively, along with the technology ideas, specifically the Internet and devices, we sought to develop a reflection on how and why some people gain more prominence than others in the online environment. To illustrate these reflections, we have as an object of research the youtuber Jout Jout, who gained considerable public attention in 2015. We can conclude that influence in the online environment operates from several fronts that exist in the habitus of the influencer, ranging from accumulation of capital, both economic, intellectual, especially social, to the willingness to ownership of technological resources, such as use of social networking sites. An individual becomes influential when it can maintain a captive audience for a constant time period, when the variables reach, relevance and resonance are articulated amongst themselves. However, the opportunity to influence is not equal for all individuals with access to the Internet, because, despite its apparent democracy, it is available unevenly in society. Influence in the online environment is, in a way, a kind of privilege of certain sections and age generations.