Abstract
This study aims to understand the symbolic dimension of health in the digital environment. We conducted an exploratory study of the fan page “Melhor com Saúde” (“Better with Health”) that has 8.5 million followers on Facebook. We selected the two most commented posts, described the content, and analyzed the first 50 comments for each. We used content analysis by thematic category proposed by Bardin (Análise de conteúdo. Edições, Lisboa, 2004). The fan page focuses on daily issues that tend to affect the body and spiritual balance. Based on an analysis of the most commented posts, we can observe how digital social media reconfigure the meaning of health. The topic expands in the social realm, creating a network of solidarity around new thematic ideas. Today, health becomes associated with well-being and the hedonistic enjoyment of life. Going beyond modern sense of rationality, it encompasses an ethos that is aesthetic, circumstantial, erected, and shared through a communication network.
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- 1.
Chapter 6 addresses the issue of Facebook and the “expert patient.”
- 2.
Chapter 19 discusses the issue of ICTs and health promotion.
- 3.
The author writes her own name in lowercase.
- 4.
Data refer to May 2018.
- 5.
The Pinterest social network uses the letter “K” to indicate the number of thousand followers. Thus, as the site points out, there are 1.32 k followers in May 2018.
- 6.
“Melhor com Saúde” Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melhorcomsaude
- 7.
“Melhor com Saúde” virtual page: https://melhorcomsaude.com.br/
- 8.
Data refer to May 2018.
- 9.
Data refer to May 2018.
- 10.
Data refer to May 2018.
- 11.
The video is available at https://www.facebook.com/melhorcomsaude/videos/768892306633606/
- 12.
The video is available at https://www.facebook.com/melhorcomsaude/videos/784733135049523/
- 13.
Video available at https://www.facebook.com/melhorcomsaude/videos/768892306633606/
- 14.
We reproduced the fan page comments as they were written, keeping the errors. As Recuero (2012) defines, it is a “verbalized” writing, the informal use of language adapted to use in social networks.
- 15.
Video available at https://www.facebook.com/melhorcomsaude/videos/784733135049523/
- 16.
Cachaça is Brazil’s most commonly drunk hard liquor and distilled from sugarcane.
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Gomes, D.C.A. (2019). Health in the Social Network: An Exploratory Study of the Fan Page “Melhor com Saúde” (“Better with Health”). In: Pereira Neto, A., Flynn, M. (eds) The Internet and Health in Brazil . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99289-1_9
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