ABSTRACT

Challenges are in line with the risk-taking practices frequent in child and youth culture. However, online challenges take on new meanings when mediated by digital sociability. To analyze this phenomenon, 122 challenge videos in Portuguese that had been made by Brazilian children or adolescents were recovered from the YouTube platform, of which 35 were selected and transcribed. Twelve types of challenges were analyzed; all involved potential self-inflicted injuries to participants, with risks ranging from minor to lethal. The discourse analysis led to an interpretation based on the theory of self-image and ethos. Online challenges appear as a powerful communicative resource to reaffirm belonging, recognition, and audience adherence, and so constitute a media strategy adopted by youth in the construction of an Internet-mediated identity in which risk and violence are decisive devices in building a self-image capable of retaining an audience. The enunciator’s body sacrifice assumes a bargaining role in this media adherence.

KEYWORDS:
Internet; Wounds and Injuries; Self-Injurious Behavior; Communications Media; Adolescent Health; Brazil

BACKGROUND

Attraction to risk and the search for emotions that disrupt everyday sensibility are standard practices in youth culture. Le Breton¹1. Le Breton D. Le goût de la syncope: les jeux d’étranglement. Adolescence. 2010;72(2):379-391.^,22. Le Breton D. Passions du risque. Paris: Métailié; 2000.⁾ proposes the category of “passion for risk” to define this extensive and diverse set of practices that allow for psychoactive changes, ways of transcending perception, and intense bodily experiences. Among young people, such sensorial-bodily experiences are aligned with the search for identity construction and for self-knowledge regarding their body and emotions.³3. Coutinho T. From religious ecstasy to ecstasy pills: a symbolic and performative analysis of electronic music festivals. Religião & Sociedade. 2006;2(Supl):0-0. Thus, the literature highlights “games” and “challenges” experienced by a number of generations, such as “extreme sports,” competitions - which sometimes involve violence - and other practices that allow adolescents and young people to show courage, irreverence and experience “risky” activities that would be reproached by adults. These practices reveal the impossibility of a society whose risks would be fully controlled by the institutions and agents dealing with adolescents.⁴4. Bour Y. “Jeux dangereux” entre adolescents. Ethnologie Française. 2007;37(4):631-637.

With the expansion and consolidation of the Internet, especially starting with Web 2.0, both youth and adult sociability is redefined by online interactions. In technical terms, Internet 2.0 is a time in which anyone without former knowledge of technology use can produce content and disseminate it in a few seconds to thousands of users connected to the network.

In historical terms, Internet 2.0 is a new moment of capitalist globalization and is a space for the production of cognitive commodities, the circulation and provision of economic and symbolic goods, services and capital, as well as the dissemination of ideologies, lifestyles, and, obviously, subjectivities.⁵5. Bentes I. “Nós somos a rede social”. En: @internet e #rua: Ciberativismo e mobilização nas redes sociais. Porto Alegre: Sulina; 2013. p. 9-16. Based on the full mobility of access and hyperconnectivity among users, on the Internet people work, consume more than before, invest, teach/learn, build affections with friends and family, and love. New technology-mediated orders of subjectivity are designed, thus building - to use a Foucauldian category - a biopolitics quite different from one anchored in disciplinary introjection, typical of industrial society. The digital culture and all the underlying market relationships, through their platforms and websites,⁶6. Van Dijck J. The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2013. support extensive connectivity, spreading creative expression, the sharing of experiences, and the constant public testimony of private life.⁷7. Keen A. Digital vertigo: How today’s online social revolution is dividing, diminishing, and disorienting us. New York: st Martins´s Press; 2012.

We move from the internalized psychosocial construction of the character and the modeling of the “ego” to the phase of complete externalization of the intimate and private spheres. Daily life and the lives of ordinary people reach a status of interest in digital social media platforms, which - depending on the amount of membership and number of shares - can be monetized and, consequently, become a model of success. The exposure of ideas, knowledge, tastes, emotions, and experiences become the most crucial evidence of social existence.⁸8. Bruno F. Máquinas de ver, modos de ser: vigilância, tecnologia e subjetividade. Porto Alegre: Sulina; 2013^,99. Sibilia P. La intimidad como espectáculo. Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica; 2017.

The task to belong to digital culture is the construction of an acceptable “self-image” endowed with symbolic attributes considered positive by the target audience. In this sense, the broad tradition of discourse studies and before them, the rhetorical treaties, help us to understand the construction of ethos and its role in the relationship with audiences. Amossy¹⁰10. Amossy R. Da noção retórica de ethos à análise do discurso. En: Imagens de si no discurso: a construção do ethos. São Paulo: Contexto; 2016. p. 9-28. points out that every discursive act involves a self-representation, whether through gestures, repertoire, linguistic uses, or even clothing and appearance. In this sense, the construction of a self-image and the successful demonstration of ethos is intended to ensure the success of a discursive enterprise, but it depends on how this discursive relationship with partners is established, in a game of mutual influence.

Maingueneau¹¹11. Maingueneau D. Análise do discurso: uma entrevista com Dominique Maingueneau. Revista Virtual de Estudos da Linguagem - ReVEL. 2006;4(6):1-6.^,1212. Maingueneau D. Ethos, cenografia e incorporação. En: Imagens de si no discurso: a construção do ethos. São Paulo: Contexto; 2016. p. 69-92. mentions that ethos involves a presentation of the character (a bundle of psychological traits) and a “corporeality,” a set of gestures, body and voice modeling, but also an attitude that builds on a set of stereotypes, that is, of well- or ill-regarded representations. The enunciator designs an ethos based on a scene of enunciation, adopting a “tone” that is the mixture of a demonstrated character and corporeality. Thus, as suggested by Maingueneau,¹¹11. Maingueneau D. Análise do discurso: uma entrevista com Dominique Maingueneau. Revista Virtual de Estudos da Linguagem - ReVEL. 2006;4(6):1-6.^,1212. Maingueneau D. Ethos, cenografia e incorporação. En: Imagens de si no discurso: a construção do ethos. São Paulo: Contexto; 2016. p. 69-92. if each type of discourse has a pre-established distribution of roles, the enunciator can choose more or less freely a “scenography,” that is, a performance that is professorial, prophetic, “cool,” among others, defining the necessary tools for successful communication.

In this context, online challenges are a revealing facet of the appropriation of this discursive management by adolescents in their digital interactions. The “challenge” modality incorporates several non-exclusive possibilities - play, competition, opportunity to show skills - and can represent a type of activity to be carried out in a mediatic roadmap, pre-defined based on the trends of actions that can arouse the interest of netizens and allow the construction of a favorable self-image.¹³13. Deslandes SF, Coutinho T. The intensive use of the Internet by children and adolescents in the context of COVID-19 and the risks for self-inflicted violence. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva. 2020;25(Suppl 1):2479-2486.

Indeed, some challenges bring messages of “overcoming,” related to skills or adherence to specific causes. However, those that have become more popular include risks with great potential to harm their practitioners’ health and physical integrity. The Blue Whale¹⁴14. Silva HF, Barbosa JVA. Baleia azul: do pensamento ao ato [Internet]. Psicologia.pt; 2017. Disponible en: https://www.psicologia.pt/artigos/textos/A1141.pdf.
https://www.psicologia.pt/artigos/textos... and Momo incite challenges involving self-harm and suicidal practices and were disseminated worldwide. The challenges related to self-suffocation are reported in several languages (“jogos de desmaio”, “jeux d’étranglement”, “choking game”, among many other designations), and are addressed as a health problem by some countries¹⁵15. Guilheri J, Andronikof A, Yazigi L. “Brincadeira do desmaio”: uma nova moda mortal entre crianças e adolescentes. Características psicofisiológicas, comportamentais e epidemiologia dos ‘jogos de asfixia’. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva. 2017;22(3):867-878. due to their lethal and harmful potential. However, dozens of other challenges with immense self-injurious potential for health are out there, and they are renewed almost weekly, generating thousands of views and followers.

In this sense, we were interested in analyzing the role of self-injurious challenges in the digital sociability of children and adolescents. Our analysis was guided by several research questions: How is the self-image produced in challenge practices? How is the relationship with the audience established? What particularities do digital environments bring to this self-construction?

METHODS

We started the exploratory phase by searching on Google, a search environment with the most significant scope on the Internet. Through the Portuguese keywords of “desafios” (challenges), “desafios adolescentes” (adolescent challenges), “desafios autolesivos” (self-injurious challenges) and “desafios mais perigosos” (most dangerous challenges), taken from our thematic categories, we made a preliminary map the first week of January 2019 that indicated the primary digital environments in which this type of practice is disseminated. Most of the challenges were hosted on YouTube, the largest video sharing platform.

As the initial search yielded more than 10,000 videos, we defined more precise inclusion criteria to reduce the collection. The first criteria were the year in which the video was published (a period of five years was used, from 2014 to 2019), the number of views (more than 100), and that the video be performed in Portuguese, implemented by children or adolescents, and involve a potential health risk. The impossibility of precisely defining the age of the participants was a drawback in this selection.

Even after applying these criteria, the YouTube search engine yielded a large number of videos (more than 1,000). Thus, a new foray was made into the collection. After the research team’s screening, we managed to group the videos around twelve challenges that met the listed criteria, especially those with the highest potential harm to the health of children and adolescents, as follows: alcoholic drinks, mouth (lip challenge), cinnamon, charcoal, fainting, deodorant, Coca-Cola® and Mentos®, fire, anthill, ice and salt, condom, and Super Glue. In terms of potential harm, we highlight primarily consequences to physical health (burns, asphyxiation, poisoning, lacerations, contact allergies, and death).

Based on this classification, a collection was created with 122 videos whose links were listed in an Excel file and classified by type of challenge. Bearing in mind that this is a sizeable audiovisual collection for an in-depth analysis, a second screening was carried out based on the previous analysis of this set of videos. Each researcher independently analyzed a subset of videos to identify the main saturation elements of this informative material. Saturation is a conceptual tool frequently used in the reports of qualitative investigations in different areas in the field of health. Fontanella et al.¹⁶16. Fontanella BJB, Ricas J, Turato ER . Amostragem por saturação em pesquisas qualitativas em saúde: contribuições teóricas. Cadernos de Saúde Pública. 2008;24:17-27. define sampling closure by theoretical saturation as the suspension of new participants when the researcher believes that the obtained data show a certain redundancy or repetition, no longer contributing significantly to the improvement of the theoretical reflection based on the data being collected. Thus, we excluded the videos that repeated the argument structure, choosing the most representative of the arguments and behaviors related to each type of challenge. We concluded this selection phase with 35 videos.

The 35 selected videos were downloaded from YouTube using the Tube Catcher tool and saved to Google Drive. In the digital space of this storage platform, the videos were separated into folders named after each challenge. The possibility of copying the video to an offline file was essential in order to keep a copy of those videos that might be lost if removed by YouTube for violating safety standards (a common feature of this material).

All videos were transcribed, including the description of the scenarios, overlapping statements, gestures, jokes, or any type of body language, as well as the use of visual and sound effects (music or noises). The title of each video was kept as is (many have already been removed from the platform for violating its security rules), but the name of the channel was omitted to preserve the child or adolescent’s identity.

The collection was subjected to a floating reading, and a synthesis of the saturations observed was elaborated based on a preliminary analysis guide (self-image construction; relationship with the audience; meanings assigned with the challenges accomplished). The discourse analysis led to interpretation based on the theoretical categories of self-image,¹⁰10. Amossy R. Da noção retórica de ethos à análise do discurso. En: Imagens de si no discurso: a construção do ethos. São Paulo: Contexto; 2016. p. 9-28.ethos, and incorporation.¹²12. Maingueneau D. Ethos, cenografia e incorporação. En: Imagens de si no discurso: a construção do ethos. São Paulo: Contexto; 2016. p. 69-92.

The research study was submitted and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Fernandes Figueira Institute of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The collection

The collection included 12 challenges with different self-injurious potential to practitioners, ranging from the minor risks like bruising to the extreme risk of death (Table 1).

The titles invoke different meanings, from a tutorial, to a sensationalist announcement of harmful consequences, to the description of the type of challenge carried out, followed by # (hashtag), the symbol used to organize content and facilitate the search for users. The most popular video reached 100,523 views and was posted in 2015.

YouTube as an enunciative context

The YouTube video sharing platform defines the enunciative context of the challenges. This space has a set of communication rules that are broadcast and inculcated informally or through a profusion of videos that teach how to become a YouTuber, guiding newbies on how to create content, what to post, how to speak, how to plan the channel, how to define a visual identity, among others. Different authors indicate that YouTube’s success and monopoly when it comes to online video sharing is due to four technological features that increase interactivity between users: video recommendations through the “Related Videos” list, an email link that allows the sharing of videos, comments (and other features inherent to social networks), and a video player that can be incorporated into other websites.¹⁷17. Burgess J, Green J. YouTube e a revolução digital. São Paulo: Aleph; 2009. In this way, the dissemination of materials and the consequent monetization (the company’s main objective) are based on the logic of interactivity and sharing, and, in the same way, those who want to be successful and recognized in this interactional space must know how to handle such devices. In other words, online platforms are technical-cultural artifacts that shape the sociality of their users, their ways of acting and communicating.⁶6. Van Dijck J. The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2013.

Most of the analyzed videos are part of a collection within the channel of the adolescent or child. In each channel, the videos address several themes and are grouped into collections called “programs.” The YouTube platform, whose motto is “broadcast yourself,” spreads the dream of everyone having their “own program” and perhaps becoming a celebrity. If having a television program was once impossible for most people, in our collection it was not uncommon to see that each member of the same family had their “own channel.” With cross references, teenagers also promote the channel of their sisters, cousins, mothers, among others. Thus, in a logic governed by the gift of disclosure and visibility, they also seek to secure an audience and its loyalty for the other channels of their family or network of friends, who are also candidates for the position of “digital celebrity.” They expect their peers to do the same, creating a feedback loop of channel references. They mainly aim to capture more subscribers to the channel, given that the YouTube platform sets goals regarding the number of subscribers needed to continue circulating the material in its algorithmic logic. It is only with a certain number of subscribers and number and length of views that these videos will appear in the list of “related videos” as the first suggestions for netizens to view in their search.

Van Dijck⁶6. Van Dijck J. The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2013. states that the “like” button reveals instant and emotional reactions, but represents much more than the “good feeling of approval.” “Likes” are also commercial clickbait, that is, they can automatically generate the popularity of a product or person. The “like” button is not as spontaneous as users think, and is at the core of a commoditized system. According to the number of “likes,” the number of views and number of followers the channel owner has, posts are monetized and the channel owner receives benefits to improve the platform experience (new technological resources), in addition to financial benefits.

Building the self-image

The central idea of most of the posts analyzed is that of self-exposure, building an image geared to public acceptance. Even children are already aware of the commercial logic imposed by the platform and, consequently, are very concerned with “likes,” with the viewing time of each video, and, above all, with gaining more subscribers to their channel.

With a script rehearsed in a “cool” tone, children and adolescents greet the audience using many slang terms. The greeting “what’s up, people?” can be addressed to mini-audiences, schoolmates or relatives, macro-audiences, and potential audiences in general. Despite the differences and regional accents found in the collection, the repertoire of slang and expressions is repeated.

The composition of the statements has the same basic structure: the boy/girl introduces himself/herself, asks for subscription to their channel, describes the challenge that they are going to perform, performs the challenge, evaluates their own performance, and ends by asking people to subscribe once again. There is, therefore, a clear demarcation of what Bakhtin defines as a narrative genre: the presence of certain stylistic, thematic, and relatively stable composition statements.¹⁸18. Bakhtin M. Speech genres and other late essays. Austin: University of Texas Press; 1986.

Teens can show a great deal of amateurism or reveal the air of more experienced communicators. Anything goes, from dancing, using a lot of slang and swearing, and adding sound or visual effects that interact with the theme and text. Phonetic effects and writing with grammatical errors predominate in this style.

In this discursive perspective, there is also an appeal to the “characterization of the enunciator’s body” in every text.¹¹11. Maingueneau D. Análise do discurso: uma entrevista com Dominique Maingueneau. Revista Virtual de Estudos da Linguagem - ReVEL. 2006;4(6):1-6. The ethos not only refers only to the verbal dimension, but also includes all the bodily attitudes that will be invoked in the construction of this image: girls pout their lips and fix their hair; boys and girls make gestures with their hands and arms (gestures like “thumbs up,” “hang loose,” imitations of rappers’ gestures, among others), roll their eyes when they want to show irony, and speak in high-pitched voices to mock possible received criticisms. The songs (in general, Rio-style funks, electronic music, US pop hits) help build the ambiance and are used in many of the videos, giving greater intensity to the interpreted actions and the presenter’s persona. Like in any self-image construction, boys and girls will use various elements (verbal and non-verbal, ethical, and aesthetic). The incorporation will depend on the interlocutor’s apprehension of a set of social and cultural representations that they share as members of the same generation marked by digital sociability.

While an aesthetics of the “rough,” improvised and rudimentary is welcome, many videos have great production and editing, revealing a vast inequality of investment and technical mastery in productions. The aspiring YouTubers belong to all social classes, and their productions reveal anything from impoverished environments to houses in upper-middle-class condominiums and are made with anything from just the cell phone as a tool to studio equipment. The different accents reveal that the practice of the challenges covers boys and girls nationwide, and the locations show urban or rural contexts.

The presentation of self-image involves a concern for demonstrating skills that the enunciator believes are required for the approval of their audience.¹⁰10. Amossy R. Da noção retórica de ethos à análise do discurso. En: Imagens de si no discurso: a construção do ethos. São Paulo: Contexto; 2016. p. 9-28. Showing oneself as communicative, friendly, charismatic, funny are essential requirements, in addition to those that can generate more adherence from a teen audience, such as being sexy (for girls) or daring (“very crazy”), that is, capable of taking the most varied risks. As Maingueneau¹²12. Maingueneau D. Ethos, cenografia e incorporação. En: Imagens de si no discurso: a construção do ethos. São Paulo: Contexto; 2016. p. 69-92. reveals, the most competent in the construction of this ethos will be those showing themselves to be “naturally” funny, daring, and “cool,” and not those who claim to have these attributes.

As pointed out by Maingueneau,¹¹11. Maingueneau D. Análise do discurso: uma entrevista com Dominique Maingueneau. Revista Virtual de Estudos da Linguagem - ReVEL. 2006;4(6):1-6.^,1212. Maingueneau D. Ethos, cenografia e incorporação. En: Imagens de si no discurso: a construção do ethos. São Paulo: Contexto; 2016. p. 69-92.^,1919. Maingueneau D. Novas tendências em análise do discurso. 3a ed. Campinas: Editora da Universidade Estadual de Campinas; 1997. this image is built on multiple relationships with the other (subjects and discourses), and its main interlocutors are the imagined or already existing audiences in digital interactions.

Co-guarantors of self-image: parents and peers as partners or assistants in meeting the challenges

We identified in some pieces of the analyzed collection the presence of parents who assist in the carrying out of the challenge or the filming, make comments, and act as assistants in the construction of the child or adolescent’s image. They act as co-guarantors of the action, inlaying it with parental consent and support. In some cases, they behave as if they were a participant of the same generation, dancing, speaking slang, with costumes and youthful gestures. Whatever their role (assistant or partner), all were concerned with the public’s adherence to their child’s channel, reinforcing requests for subscription to the channel and “likes.”

Parent participation gives a connotation of protection and parental supervision, and that of peers gives the challenge added value, as something “interesting” and fun.

The participation of two or more boys/girls was verified in several videos, such as alcohol, deodorant, fire, condoms, and choking challenges (Table 1). Here the performance could take on the characteristic of a “game/competition,” where each participant was required to perform the task until the end, or of “stage assistants” to the main character (channel owner). In the first case, the participants could not give up even amid pain or discomfort. When they showed weakness, fear, or tiredness, they were induced by peers through shouting, threats, and teasing. The challenge was carried out entirely for the camera, showing the constant concern with media recording. In the second case, the peer worked as an assistant, positioning the camera, acting as an immediate audience member through laughter, comments, and shouting, or acting as a stage manager.

The role of challenges in building self-image and bargaining with the audience

Judging by the significant presence of challenges in the channels of children and adolescents, and the existence of entire programs aiming to hold marathons of different challenges, we can infer that this modality plays a vital role in connecting with the audience. The same challenge can generate so much viewership that it is redone in several programs, for example, Challenge #1, #2, #3, etc.

Netizens who watch the videos play an active role in elaborating roadmaps by sending countless suggestions for new challenges. On the other hand, they ask that their names be mentioned in the videos, once again reinforcing the idea of hypervisibility where everyone wants to be exposed and known.²⁰20. Santaella L. Intersubjetividade nas redes digitais. En: Primo A (org). Interações em rede. Porto Alegre: Editora Sulina; 2016. p. 33-47.

The higher the risks at stake in the challenge, especially those that may cause harm to health or damage the social image (these have not been explored here), the more favorable they will be seen to an increased audience. Drinking alcoholic beverages in large quantities, placing one’s hand or foot in an anthill, gluing body parts with industrial glue, burning the body, choking until passing out, inhaling charcoal, swallowing large doses of cinnamon, causing edema on the lips in order to resemble a famous actress, among others, are the “price to pay” in the harsh search for an audience.

The injuries suffered, the pain felt, can be real or staged. What matters is that they be credible and convincing. In many video titles, the gimmicks will be the unforeseen consequences and the harm suffered, as in “Quem bebe mais pinga. Deu merda!” [Who drinks more pinga (cachaza). Everything went wrong!], “Desafio da K.J a boca ficou preta” [KJ challenge my mouth turned black], “Coloquei a mão no formigueiro deu B.O” [I put my hand in an anthill and ended up with a police report], “Brincadeira de desmaiar: nossa quase morri 1” [The fainting game: my God, I nearly died 1]. This “sacrifice” will be directly or indirectly emphasized with the audience, with the moral consideration that they subscribe to the channel. They make it clear that there is a kind of bargain between the corporal sacrifice of YouTube in exchange for the positive evaluation of netizens.

The girl continues: “Share with your friends.”

At the end of one video, a girl who caused herself to faint several times by choking herself lists all possible cardiac and neurological harms she could suffer, and then proceeds to “demand” consideration of this by subscribing to her channel. In another video, with a great deal of editing effects and technical investment, a teenager performs the challenge of introducing her hand into an anthill (“Coloquei a mão no formigueiro deu B.O” [I put my hand in an anthill and ended up with a police report]), then posts photos of her hospitalization due to the anaphylactic shock she suffered. Even in the hospital photos, the teenager is concerned with her look, posing sensually with makeup. At the end of the video, she also establishes the same base of negotiation: bodily sacrifice/self-inflicted injury in exchange for an audience and approval by netizens.

When evident, the consequences or harm to health will be used as capital, as a reinforcement of the image that one wants to build in a “heroic” project of self-determination, despite any risk. The “enunciating body” appears here, as Maingueneau¹²12. Maingueneau D. Ethos, cenografia e incorporação. En: Imagens de si no discurso: a construção do ethos. São Paulo: Contexto; 2016. p. 69-92. offers us, in clear enunciative reflexivity in the relationship established between body and discourse. The body validates the ethos that one wants to build, as the record that is “shown” is more important and effective than what is “said.” The scenography of the discursive context of the online challenges is revealed through different languages, styles, and performances such as the interaction algorithm developed by the YouTube platform (comments, likes, sharing, video promotion strategies, privacy policies); the spoken language with a great deal of slang and swear words; and the filming technique observed in the camera angle, sound and visual effects and soundtracks. These languages are apprehended and expressed through the body; that is, they are incorporated (embodied) by the enunciators when communicating with their audience.

The challenge, as a strategy to retain the audience’s loyalty to the channel, proves to be a success when the other netizens send comments, suggest new challenges to be carried out in front of the camera, or claim that watching the challenge led them to subscribe to the channel. Some of the videos stated that there was a goal for the number of likes, generating the promise that once achieved, new, bolder challenges or supposedly more interesting videos would be posted.

It is interesting to note that even in those challenges with a small number of views, the communication logic of YouTubers is still present. Looking at the camera as if speaking directly to the audience, the verbal language of the latest slang and swear words, and all the body language taken from those who have been successful on the platform are artifices present in the challenges, independently of their reach and number of views.

Although the “choking games” have reached a large number of young people since 2000, especially in the USA and France, and the resulting deaths were widely disseminated in print and TV media sources, in Brazil the phenomenon of online challenges has received little attention by researchers. According to Guilheri et al.,¹⁵15. Guilheri J, Andronikof A, Yazigi L. “Brincadeira do desmaio”: uma nova moda mortal entre crianças e adolescentes. Características psicofisiológicas, comportamentais e epidemiologia dos ‘jogos de asfixia’. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva. 2017;22(3):867-878. no scientific studies in Portuguese on these types of behaviors could be found before 2016. In this sense, other authors highlight the need for carrying out new studies on these types of dangerous behaviors especially in Brazil and Latin America.

After 2016, only three articles were found on the topic in Brazil.¹³13. Deslandes SF, Coutinho T. The intensive use of the Internet by children and adolescents in the context of COVID-19 and the risks for self-inflicted violence. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva. 2020;25(Suppl 1):2479-2486.^,1414. Silva HF, Barbosa JVA. Baleia azul: do pensamento ao ato [Internet]. Psicologia.pt; 2017. Disponible en: https://www.psicologia.pt/artigos/textos/A1141.pdf.
https://www.psicologia.pt/artigos/textos... ^,1515. Guilheri J, Andronikof A, Yazigi L. “Brincadeira do desmaio”: uma nova moda mortal entre crianças e adolescentes. Características psicofisiológicas, comportamentais e epidemiologia dos ‘jogos de asfixia’. Ciência & Saúde Coletiva. 2017;22(3):867-878. The works published highlight that the challenges are increasingly popular among young people, who are attracted to the logic of exposure proposed by social media. The authors agree that both understanding and taking action regarding this complex phenomenon requires an interdisciplinary effort especially involving the areas of knowledge related to health, education and communication.

CONCLUSIONS

Challenges are practices that span generations and expose some of the representations and meanings of the condition of youth in the path of culturally-modeled identity production. The particularity is that, in the context of the digital sociability of children and youth, these phenomena take the place of a powerful communicative resource to reaffirm belonging, recognition, and audience adherence. They also serve as a discursive opportunity for the presentation of an ethos, a self-image modeled in a hyperexposure-oriented scenography.

In an environment where a large amount of information circulates, all the contents produced, especially those referring to the construction of self-image, must be all the more “spectacular” to capture the attention of a receiver flooded by information produced daily in large volume. Thus, online challenges are presented as a media strategy that is incorporated by young people and adolescents in the construction of an Internet-mediated identity in which risk and violence become decisive devices in the construction of a self-image capable of retaining an audience. The challenges reveal that the enunciator’s body is where all these languages are synthesized and this digital sociability is modeled.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was financed by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), No. 409048/2018-6

References

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