PLATFORMED READING IN DIGITAL MEDIA: FROM INFORMATION OVERLOAD TO LOSS OF CRITICAL THINKING

Abstract

In this article, we start from the hypothesis that the reader of digital media such as Instagram constructs meaning through frames organized in meta-frames visible on cell phone screen. Each frame is presented in generic portions, fragmented, ordered and aligned to the feed scroll bar present in the timeline of each profile. We examined the gathering process sequenced by multisemiotic thematic frames present in each frame taken from screenshots of the Instagram's cell phone. We analyzed 120 posts published on Instagram, which were divided into six groups, each with twenty sequential frames. The groups were separated into two blocks: sixty posts from three personal accounts; and sixty posts from three professional accounts. To discover discursive patterns of logical-semantic relationships on platforms, we analyzed the material collected from the categories of reference, dialogue, image structure, situation and intention; and aspects os image specificity, connection, organization, visual references and interpretation. We saw that each frame is perceived by the reader as an autonomous unit of meaning, as if each slice encapsulated by a genre (news, propaganda, scientific dissemination, meme) had in itself the property of meaning with a high degree of autonomy. The persuasive strategy for keeping the reader on the platform is the constant activation of new referents, in addition to the high level of novelty and unpredictability of each frame on the platform. This combination of novelty and unpredictability promotes a permanent state of stimulation, which can generate a fragmentation on perception, memory and reading comprehension.