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

Abstract

In the midst of a pandemic context, the year 2020 left the world population vulnerable to the risk of a disease caused by a virus and tested the ability to comply with prevention measures, such as social isolation. This article reports the results of an investigation that sought to gather testimonies about the fear of COVID-19 among university students in Bucaramanga (Colombia), based on their recollection of what happened in the year 2020. Using a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were employed as a methodological strategy in order to generate narratives based on recollection, associated with three categories of analysis: perception of risk, information consumption as an influencing factor, and compliance with social distancing measures. The results lead to the conclusion that there was a high perception of risk, mainly influenced by parents and grandparents as familial authorities, and reinforced by a dynamic of increasing and immediate information about contagion and the disease caused by the SARS-CoV virus. The dynamics of distributed and immediate communication on the subject promoted a progressive closeness to the disease, becoming an enhancing factor of risk perception. The recollection allows for the depiction of an environment of physical confinement with a return to traditional practices of family exposure to stories and narratives of the pandemic presented through television, within the context of young individuals cohabiting with multiple generations.