The replaceability of the subject in the pandemic postmodernity of the 21st century

Abstract

Objective: This research article addresses the understanding of the resignification of the concept of love from the transformations generated by the pandemic and the confinement by Covid-19 in Medellín (Colombia) between 2020 and 2023, making a brief account of the heuristic memory used for the design, collection and analysis of research information, specifying methodological elements on which the process was based and the ways by which it was possible to come up with new findings; Subsequently, some semantic networks generated in the atlas.ti software are presented with their respective analyzes from which a session of results and conclusions is projected.

Materials and methods: Regarding the investigative structure, four moments were developed. In the first one, the ontoepistemological foundation was developed, for which printed and digital scientific bibliographic sources were used, analyzing more than 250 articles in English and Spanish. The second moment was the development and application of semi-structured interviews to key informants. The third moment was the realization of the panel of experts with the adaptation of the Delphi methodology. The fourth, and last moment, was the analysis of the information collected for the consolidation of the products and results of the research through analysis matrices and the atlas.ti software for qualitative data processing.

The research was developed in the city of Medellín from January 2021 to May 2023. The key informants were selected through the intentional sampling model, which responded to the criteria that guided the investigative process. Thus, the main inclusion criteria, for the general population, were being of legal age and having been part of an emotional or family relationship during the period of confinement by Covid-19 in the city of Medellín. The key informants were chosen among consultants of the psychology service, in total, 30 interviews were carried out with the general population.

On the other hand, four professionals in psychology were selected whose professional work was related to the attention to the previously described population before, during and after the period of confinement. Finally, four experts were selected to carry out the panel, trained in clinical psychology, social work, sociology and sexology.

Results: The data collected was processed through the Atlas.ti software, in which 38 files corresponding to the transcripts of interviews with the population, interviews with professionals and panel of experts were collected. Likewise, in the processing of information, six main categories were identified in which 32 emerging codes were grouped, supported by 918 citations of the analyzed instruments.

As a result of this research, it has been shown that pandemic postmodernity generated changes regarding the meaning of the concept of love, while exacerbating the characteristic elements of postmodernity, such as the relativization of ties. Added to this is a reality that had a direct impact on such ties, such as the confinement caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which not only affected people's health, but also caused profound transformations in the social fabric, from in particular, in relational dynamics, as it fostered the permanent use of digital and virtual networks given the mandatory nature of social distancing.

In this same logic, the research sought a deep reflection on those new scenarios that were arranged by confinement in the context of postmodernity, particularly analyzing the way in which couples and families began to live new relational experiences in affective matters. . In this way, it is understood that love is a dynamic concept that changes according to the social and contextual particularities that, in this case, generated the pandemic.

Among the most significant findings of this research, it is found that, in effect, great and profound transformations have been perceived around the meaning of the concept of love, given that the pandemic and confinement were activators of affective conflicts that had not been processed. in other scenarios. The interviewees state that love has been evolving and that a generational gap is beginning to become evident in the way other generations understood and lived love. In this way, family and couple love have taken on new meanings, which go hand in hand with new structural relational models in emotional and affective contacts.

In accordance with the above, a large majority of key informants refer that the rise of the media and, particularly, of social networks, have generated profound effects on the concept of love from the perspective of the couple and the family, basing such changes in the amount of time invested in the use of devices and in the relational logics that are established through the different social networks, in which the possibility of meeting hundreds of people is established, having hundreds of close contacts, but, most of the time, without the possibility of generating deep ties.

Conclusions: It is concluded that the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the use of digital platforms and, consequently, new relational scenarios were consolidated that continue to feed relativism and the link fragility of postmodernity.

When carrying out the analysis of the information obtained during the field work, it is possible to recognize some common discourses among the people who participated in the investigation. In this logic, one could speak of interpretations and conceptualizations that have simply begun to be part of the social construct, perhaps as a kind of imaginary in which ideas that become commonplace are simply accepted, which are influenced, or in some cases cases even defined by the massive consumption of content on social networks.

Addressing the theme of love was, as anticipated in the onto-epistemological foundation of the research, dealing with a topic in which all people have something to contribute and about which there is always something to say. Added to this approach is the issue of the pandemic, another reality about which all human beings of the present time have something to say, as it is a recent event that affected the lives of all people.

Both realities, love and the pandemic, run the risk of falling into subjectivity, taking into account that they end up being personal experiences that may be far from constructions based on an epistemological reflection and of which it can be said that emotions, sensations and feelings prevail feelings when trying to talk about them.