AMBIENTE VIRTUAL: UM ESTUDO EXPLORATÓRIO COM ESTUDANTES UNIVERSITÁRIOS.

This research aimed to understand the students of a public university in the interior of the state of São Paulo, about what is the Virtual Environment and its impacts on everyday life. As a theoretical framework, to understand the concept of environment and to reflect on what is conventionally called virtual environment, we used Environmental Psychology. Forty interviews were conducted and analyzed to highlight the meanings attributed by students to the interrelationship between people and the virtual environment. It can be highlighted that young people understand the virtual environment as something broad and have great difficulty clearly defining it, despite the large number of hours of use. It is possible to highlight that the subjects understand that there is a great connection of multiple determination between the virtual environment (online) and the environment (offline). The results point to the great need for studies and interventions regarding the virtual environments in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]