WhatsApp and Wellbeing: A study on WhatsApp usage, communication quality and stress

A considerable part of everyday communication is online based nowadays. To imagine life without the daily (or even hourly) usage of WhatsApp seems impossible for many people. The present exploratory study (N=135) takes a closer look at the usage of WhatsApp and the psychological consequences. Our study highlights correlations and differences of the usage and experience of specific WhatsApp features (single chats and group chats, Last Seen and Read Receipts) with perceived communication quality and wellbeing, also drawing relations to psychological theory such as human needs framework and need to belong. A high number of single chats was positively correlated with perceived communication profundity but also with perceived stress, and waste of time. Moreover, wellbeing was affected by the individual usage mode and experience of WhatsApp features. For example, perceived stress was significantly higher among participants with active usage of Read Receipts than with passive usage and especially participants who feel stressed by Read Receipts, agreeing to be more relaxed without them, considered WhatsApp communication a waste of time. We discuss implications of our findings on the level of personal usage behaviour as well as HCI research and design in general. We highlight the challenges for the individual to customize technology to support a healthy use in daily life. Finally, the present study emphasizes the need for user experience evaluation on a fine-grained level, taking focus on single features and their consequences, and recognising how their activation or deactivation can eventually change the product character as a whole.

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Nicole Blabst

Sarah Diefenbach

Conference

Publication date: July 2017

Publication date (Print): July 2017

Pages: 1-6

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[0001]Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/HCI2017.85

SO-VID: 13989f4f-145b-452a-afa5-e7432d5d8c9d

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of the 31st International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference (HCI 2017)

Conference acronym: HCI

Conference number: 31

Conference location: Sunderland, UK

Conference date: 3 - 6 July 2017

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: digital make-believe, with delegates considering our expansive

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI2017.85

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

reference

A. D. AhadS. M. A. Lim 2014 Convenience or nuisance?: The ‘WhatsApp’ dilemma Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 155 189 196 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.10.278
R. F. BaumeisterM. R. Leary 1995 The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation Psychological Bulletin 117 3 497
M. BurkeR. E. Kraut 2016 The Relationship between Facebook Use and Well-Being depends on Communication Type and Tie Strength Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 21 4 265 281 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12162
K. ChurchR. de Oliveira 2013 What's up with whatsapp?: comparing mobile instant messaging behaviors with traditional SMS. 15th international conference on Human-computer interaction with mobile devices and services, Munich August 30 2013 352 361 ACM, Munich
E. KarapanosP. TeixeiraR. Gouveia 2016 Need fulfillment and experiences on social media: A case on Facebook and WhatsApp Computers in Human Behavior 55 888 897 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016Zj.chb.2015.10.015
A. R. LeeS. M. SonK. K. Kim 2016 Information and communication technology overload and social networking service fatigue: A stress perspective Computers in Human Behavior 55 51 61 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.08.011
D. G. MickS. PettigrewC. C. PechmannJ. L. Ozanne 2012 Transformative consumer research for personal and collective well-being New York, NY Routledge
K. P. O'HaraM. MassimiR. HarperS. RubensJ. Morris 2014 Everyday dwelling with WhatsApp In Proceedings of the 17th ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work & social computing Baltimore, Maryland 14-19 February 2014 1131 1143 ACM Baltimore, Maryland http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2531602.2531679
M. PielotR. de OliveiraH. KwakN. Oliver 2014 Didn’t You See My Message? Predicting Attentiveness to Mobile Instant Messages Poster presented at CHI 2014 Toronto, Canada http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2556973
C. SagioglouT. Greitemeyer 2014 Facebook’s emotional consequences: Why Facebook causes a decrease in mood and why people still use it Computers in Human Behavior 35 359 363 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.03.003
K. M. SheldonA. J. ElliotY. KimT. Kasser 2001 What is satisfying about satisfying events? Testing 10 candidate psychological needs Journal of personality and social psychology 80 2 325

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[1] A. D. AhadS. M. A. Lim 2014 Convenience or nuisance?: The ‘WhatsApp’ dilemma Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 155 189 196 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.10.278

[2] R. F. BaumeisterM. R. Leary 1995 The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation Psychological Bulletin 117 3 497

[3] M. BurkeR. E. Kraut 2016 The Relationship between Facebook Use and Well-Being depends on Communication Type and Tie Strength Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 21 4 265 281 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12162

[4] K. ChurchR. de Oliveira 2013 What's up with whatsapp?: comparing mobile instant messaging behaviors with traditional SMS. 15th international conference on Human-computer interaction with mobile devices and services, Munich August 30 2013 352 361 ACM, Munich

[5] E. KarapanosP. TeixeiraR. Gouveia 2016 Need fulfillment and experiences on social media: A case on Facebook and WhatsApp Computers in Human Behavior 55 888 897 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016Zj.chb.2015.10.015

[6] A. R. LeeS. M. SonK. K. Kim 2016 Information and communication technology overload and social networking service fatigue: A stress perspective Computers in Human Behavior 55 51 61 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.08.011

[7] D. G. MickS. PettigrewC. C. PechmannJ. L. Ozanne 2012 Transformative consumer research for personal and collective well-being New York, NY Routledge

[8] K. P. O'HaraM. MassimiR. HarperS. RubensJ. Morris 2014 Everyday dwelling with WhatsApp In Proceedings of the 17th ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work & social computing Baltimore, Maryland 14-19 February 2014 1131 1143 ACM Baltimore, Maryland http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2531602.2531679

[9] M. PielotR. de OliveiraH. KwakN. Oliver 2014 Didn’t You See My Message? Predicting Attentiveness to Mobile Instant Messages Poster presented at CHI 2014 Toronto, Canada http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2556973

[10] C. SagioglouT. Greitemeyer 2014 Facebook’s emotional consequences: Why Facebook causes a decrease in mood and why people still use it Computers in Human Behavior 35 359 363 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.03.003

[11] K. M. SheldonA. J. ElliotY. KimT. Kasser 2001 What is satisfying about satisfying events? Testing 10 candidate psychological needs Journal of personality and social psychology 80 2 325

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