A compreensão etnoentomológica em grupos de rede social

Abstract

Insects cause several impressions humans, from fascination to phobia, they are not always seen under a scientific perspective, opening space for popular precepts and beliefs that do not represent their biological function, and consequently, result in their extermination. This behavior is evidenced in the virtual environment, such as blogs, discussion forums or social networking groups. This research aimed to understand, through netnography from the perspective of ethnoentomology, the interactions of users in relation to insects in social network groups. For data collection, three groups from the social network Facebook were selected (Grupo horta em casa, Horta em casa and Insetos), where twenty publications containing images of insect species were analyzed in each group. After identifying the insect orders, the comments were grouped into categories and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Users in Horta's groups expressed through comments that they felt fear/phobia when seeing photos containing insects (31%), as well as comments with methods for the extermination of these species (24%). While only 10% of the comments were receptive. However, this scenario is reversed when compared to the group related to insects, where only 6% of individuals had phobias related to insects, and another 2% indicated forms of extermination. In the Insects group, most users showed positive behaviors regarding insect images (52%). It was noted that among the orders listed, Lepidoptera (larval stage) presented the highest number of negative expressions in relation to the other taxa, adding up to 1272 of the comments, followed by Hemiptera with 401 and Orthoptera with a total of 260 of the manifestations. In this way, we can observe that social networks significantly reflect the patterns found in the real world, and that, if scientifically oriented, they can be used for users to acquire a more positive view of insects, and consequently their greater acceptance.