Engaging interaction and long-term engagement with WhatsApp in an everyday life context: exploratory study

Abstract

PurposeThe aim of this exploratory study is to analyze if the most used factors related to the engaging interaction and long-term engagement with online applications can be applied to WhatsApp in a context of everyday life in Madrid and to investigate what parameters would best describe the engagement with WhatsApp in this context.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative method was employed to explore the cognitive, emotional and behavioral factors that mainly comprise the experience of a user with an online application, both at a point in time and over time. Data from 30 semi-structured interviews and questionnaires from six group chats were collected and analyzed. The sample was made up of people aged from 13 to 58 years old.FindingsFindings suggest that the factors used in this study to evaluate long-term engagement and engaging interactions with WhatsApp are relevant, except for cognitive factors related to engaging interactions, indicating that the cognitive point of view is more difficult to apply in the engaging interaction analysis. Other attributes related to information retrieval are suggested, best suited to the informative use of this tool.Originality/valueLong-term engagement studies are scarcer concerning Mobile Instant Messaging applications. Regarding engagement interaction, its analysis focusing on WhatsApp has not been approached. This study suggests the convenience of using parameters related to information to evaluate the engaging interaction, according to the informative use of the application.

Dark side of instant messaging: an empirical investigation from technology and society perspective

“…Studies have shown instances where unverified messages are inflammatory (Mohit, 2012;Gong et al, 2018;Thrassou et al, 2020). This provocative, exaggerated and unverified information often becomes the root cause of social unrest, and even can cause mob lynching, as is evident from other studies (Choliz, 2012;Supriya, 2012;Chaudhuri et al, 2013a;Sakka et al, 2021;Martinez-Comeche and Ruthven, 2021). Mob lynching has become a new type of offence, which is done when someone hurts a community's feelings.…”

“…People normally do not verify the information disseminated through IM platforms, but they are influenced to react to such unverified information, which may cause harm to the society (Udem et al, 2020;Martinez-Comeche and Ruthven, 2021).…”

Effectiveness of customer social participation for academic purposes: a case of informal WhatsApp groups

“…WhatsApp is a smartphone application that can be operated on most devices and operating systems currently available (Bouhnik and Deshen, 2014; Jailobaev et al , 2021). Although it is considered a form of mobile instant messaging (Church and Oliveira, 2013; Padmavathy et al , 2018; Cruz-Cárdenas et al , 2019; Martinez-Comeche and Ruthven, 2021), it is also technically identified as a social networking application, which facilitates people wider access to information (Bouhnik and Deshen, 2014). WhatsApp provides a variety of functions, such as text messages, images, audio files, video files and links to web addresses (Church and Oliveira, 2013; Bouhnik and Deshen, 2014; Jailobaev et al , 2021) at low cost (Chaputula et al , 2020).…”

“…Moreover, students derive academic advantages such as accessibility of learning materials, teacher availability and the continuation of learning beyond class hours (Bouhnik and Deshen, 2014). Meanwhile, in contrast, a study of WhatsApp use in everyday life in Madrid asserts that many participants think WhatsApp is frequently amusing; but find the repetitive process of checking for and replying to texts, without significant variation in conversation topics or participants, sometimes boring; and the overload of information stressful (Martinez-Comeche and Ruthven, 2021).…”

“…Perceived participation benefits and customer social participation in WhatsApp for educational purposes Several studies highlight the benefits of WhatsApp for education, professional advancement, information sharing and social interaction(Amry, 2014;Padmavathy et al, 2018;Gazit and Aharony, 2018;Gazit et al, 2019;Martinez-Comeche and Ruthven, 2021). WhatsApp can facilitate the creation of a pleasing environment to promote association among students.…”