Why do we love the Lion King? Perception of animation among young adults

Abstract

Our lives are easily driven or transformed by technologies, different forms of communication and information available, creating (new) realities or representations of reality. But how can these virtual worlds transform our social world, and our sense of reality? The present study is focused on the way how animation films are percept by young adults, and the importance they have for them. So, we aim to contribute to the understanding of possible connections between a social or practical reality, and the fantasy of virtual worlds. In this paper, we will analyze the answers of some young adults (N=210), men and women with an average age of 30 years, to three open questions concerning the films that marked them the most, the importance of animation on their life and how is animation present on their everyday life. The data gathered from their answers were classified in categories and analyzed with an automatic content analysis software – Leximancer – that permits advanced text analytics visualization. Results showed that animation films are really important in our participants’ lives, as part of the social life and well-being of the individuals, even if an adaptation of reality is not conscious, thus building the virtual worlds that connect us with what we know as reality.