VIRTUAL ETHNOGRAPHY
WHAT SOCIAL NETWORKS SAY ABOUT EPILEPSY?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51473/rcmos.v1i11.2021.171Keywords:
Social media, Seizure crisis, Information and communication technologyAbstract
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by episodes of sudden and recurrent behavioral changes, the so-called epileptic seizures. The high prevalence and severity of this disease, especially in individuals who do not have their seizures under control, has caused affected patients to be stigmatized by society in the school and work environment. Currently, with the popularity of social networks and the access to information through virtual means, both for patients and the curious, a new way of doing research has emerged, the so-called virtual neography, which consists of the analysis of social media. Thus, the goal of this study was to survey the publications on social networks about information about epilepsy, for which three social networks were selected: Instagram, facebook and tik tok, with previously selected descriptors and then the 20 posts that had the highest number of views, likes, and shares were selected. Then the analysis of each post was performed, and we can see that the most viewed, liked, and shared posts were the informative ones about care when a seizure occurs, the information about epilepsy with exposure of myths about the disease. Thus, we can conclude that social networks have been acting as a disseminator of information about epilepsy for the community that does not have access to scientific information through traditional methodology.