Digital comfort amidst precarity: New middle classes’ experience of well-being and hardship in pandemic times in Brazil

Abstract

During the pandemic, digital platforms had a boom in revenue or subscriptions. Despite their increasing relevance, few studies explore how different social strata experience such access. Based on 31 in-depth interviews in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this article discusses the meanings and practices of digital consumption among the ‘new middle class.’ By focusing on three platforms—ride-sharing apps, food delivery apps, and audio-visual streaming—we interrogate how digital consumption has shaped experiences of well-being and hardship during pandemic times and how it relates to social mobility. We argue that digital platforms brought comfort amidst precarity as mechanisms for accessing relaxing and fun moments while responding to structural issues of Brazilian megacities. Our data also suggest these digital platforms enhance middle-class symbolic status related to individualised and private practices, though collectiveness is still present in participants’ liminal class experience.