Informational behavior and information anxiety in stricto sensu graduate students: a preliminary study of informational subjects on social networks.

Abstract

Exposure to information overload, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), and the connection to virtuality are increasingly prevalent in academic settings, particularly among students, making them vulnerable to the phenomenon of information anxiety. In this regard, the possibility of identifying triggering behaviors of this phenomenon in informational subjects within Graduate Programs in Brazil is brought to light. Thus, the initial problem of this research is: what are the main aspects of the informational behavior of stricto sensu graduate students that cause information anxiety in the research process? As a general objective, this research intends to evaluate the main aspects of the informational behavior of stricto sensu graduate students that cause information anxiety in the research process. Regarding the methodological procedures, it will be based on the monographic, understood in this study as a documentary research, with a descriptive level and a qualitative approach. The universe corresponds to stricto sensu graduate students. To compose the sample, graduate students following the "PhD da Deprê" profile on the virtual social network Instagram will be analyzed. As for the preliminary results, it is possible to observe that the "PhD da Deprê" profile is humor-oriented, aiming to use humor to deal with the adverse situations experienced by students in stricto sensu graduate programs. It is important to note that despite its comedic bias, the profile organizes its highlighted publications into reports, support network, depression reports. The feed and reels publications always bring content that points out the mental health status of these students, and in the comments, it is possible to identify reports of students with information anxiety, reports of normosis, and informational normosis. Observing this virtual social network profile and reports from other stricto sensu graduate students, normotic behaviors can be observed that generate informational anxiety demanded by supervisors, by the graduate programs themselves, and to a certain degree, by the students themselves who are conditioned to this normotic behavior imposed by the academic environment.