The medical student and his academic career: an analysis of postings of suffering

Abstract

In a contemporary age that values performative happiness and medicalizes life, medical training is a trigger for different issues. The academic experience, which already announces the daily professional future, is permeated by demands and sickening behaviors, which compromise the health of the students as a whole. In this sense, through the analysis of public posts in the Instagram social network, from October 2018 to April 2019, it was sought to understand the manifestations of suffering of these individuals from what they decide to expose to the community. The results signal the naturalization of the loss of quality of life, the propagation of a meritocratic discourse of overcoming adversity, as well as the use of social networks as a strategy of confrontation and belonging. They also reinforce the need to continue investigating these discourses, since they announce a scenario that requires attention.