Risk perception and information in times of pandemic: the memory of a connected confinement in young people from Bucaramanga

Abstract

In pandemic context, the year 2020 experienced the feeling of a world population vulnerable to the risk of a disease caused by a virus. In addition, the ability to obey measures associated with prevention, such as social isolation, was tested. This article reports the results of an investigation that recorded testimonies about the fear of COVID-19 in young university students from Bucaramanga (Colombia), from the memory of what happened in 2020. From a qualitative approach, the semi-structured interview is taken as a strategy methodological in order to generate a story, from memory. Three categories of analysis were defined: risk perception, consumption of information as an incidence factor, and obedience to the measure of social distancing. The results allow us to conclude a high risk perception influenced by parents and grandparents as family authority. A dynamic of increasing and immediate information on the contagion and disease caused by the SARS-CoV virus is reinforced. The dynamics of distributed and immediate communication on the subject promoted a progressive closeness to the disease, becoming a factor that enhances the perception of risk. The memory allows us to imagine an environment of physical confinement with a resurgence of traditional practices of family exposure to pandemic stories and narratives presented on television, in the context of young people who live with several generations.