Social Media and New Norms impact: “Oh! My Grandparents (OMG)!” As an Administrator in Family WhatsApp Group

Azian Muhamad Adzmi, Liyana Mohd Ramly, Syahida Mohd Nazri, Nik Fatinah N. Mohd Farid, Muhammad Asyraf Abdul Rahman

Abstract


WhatsApp has become a major necessity in modern communication both individually and as a group. During an unprecedented time like COVID-19 pandemic, it increased the utilization of social media among society and has developed new norms among its users, especially grandparents. This study emphasises the various real-life activities undertaken by grandparents in social media and detailed research regarding the various WhatsApp administrators in a group chat. A qualitative research approach consisting of in-depth interviews have been carried out among family members in order to gather all the information-involving informants. In addition, it aims to gain a broader perspective of the informants' view regarding their grandparents becoming the administrator of a family WhatsApp group. Results of this study revealed that family relationships became strengthened between grandparents and other family members, especially with their grandchildren. Secondly, grandparents started being obsessed with WhatsApp, they are keen to learn more and are even able to keep up with the latest technology. Finally, the topics discussed in the family WhatsApp group covers current issues such as politics, religious advice, and sometimes entertainment. Generally, this study is expected to contribute to the communication studies and social media field, specifically understanding the use of social media between two different generations that are keen to keep up to date with the current technology especially during the unprecedented time.

 

Keywords: WhatsApp, grandparents, pandemic, new norms, social media.

 

https://doi.org/10.17576/JKMJC-2021-3704-15


Full Text:

PDF

References


Aharony, N., & Gazit, T. (2016). The importance of the WhatsApp family group: An exploratory analysis. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 68(2), 174–192. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-09-2015-0142

Amaral, I., & Daniel, F. (2018, July). The use of social media among senior citizens in Portugal: Active ageing through an intergeneration approach. International Conference on Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population (pp. 422-434). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92034-4_32

Baishya, D., & Maheshwari, S. (2020). WhatsApp groups in academic context: Exploring the academic uses of WhatsApp Groups among the students. Contemporary Educational Technology, 11(1), 31-46. https://doi.org/10.30935/cet.641765

Berezan, O., Krishen, A. S., Agarwal, S., & Kachroo, P. (2018). The pursuit of virtual happiness: Exploring the social media experience across generations. Journal of Business Research, 89(June 2017), 455–461. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.11.038

Boddy, C. R. (2016). Sample size for qualitative research. Qualitative Market Research, 19(4), 426-432. https://doi.org/10.1108/QMR-06-2016-0053

Bowen, M. (1988). Family therapy in clinical practice. Jason Aronson.

Brewer, R. N., Schoenebeck, S., Lee, K., & Suryadevara, H. (2021). Challenging passive social media use: Older adults as caregivers online. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(CSCW1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1145/3449197

Cao, H., Chen, Z., Cheng, M., Zhao, S., Wang, T., & Li, Y. (2021). You recommend, I buy: How and why people engage in instant messaging based social commerce. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(CSCW1), 1-25. https://doi.org/g65c

Charalambides, A. (2019). Promoting digital literacy and active ageing for senior citizens: The GRANKIT project–grandparents and grandchildren keep in touch. International Conference ICT for Language Learning. Emphasys Centre: Centre for Education, ICT Training and Research (Cyprus). https://conference.pixel-online.net/ICT4LL/files/ict4ll/ed0008/FP/1952-SLA1219-FP-ICT4LL8.pdf

Chen, A. T., Ge, S., Cho, S., Teng, A. K., Chu, F., Demiris, G., & Zaslavsky, O. (2021). Reactions to COVID-19, information and technology use, and social connectedness among older adults with pre-frailty and frailty. Geriatric Nursing, 42(1), 188-195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gerinurse.2020.08.001

Cinelli, M., Quattrociocchi, W., Galeazzi, A., Valensise, C. M., Brugnoli, E., Schmidt, A. L., ... & Scala, A. (2020). The COVID-19 social media infodemic. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73510-5

Cruz, E. G., & Harindranath, R. (2020). WhatsApp as' technology of life': Reframing research agendas. First Monday.

https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/download/10405/8318

Daneels, R., & Vanwynsberghe, H. (2017). Mediating social media use: Connecting parents’ mediation strategies and social media literacy. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 11(3). https://doi.org/10.5817/CP2017-3-5

Duggan, M., Lenhart, A., Lampe, C., & Ellison, N. B. (2015). Parents and social media. Pew Research Center, 16(1), 2. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/07/16/main-findings-14/

Fernández-Ardévol, M., & Rosales, A. (2017). Older people, smartphones, and WhatsApp. In J. Vincent & L. Haddon (Eds.), Smartphone cultures (pp. 55-68). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315307077-5/older-people-smartphones-whatsapp-mireia-fern%C3%A1ndez-ard%C3%A8vol-andrea-rosales

Fietkiewicz, K. J., Baran, K. S., Lins, E., & Stock, W. G. (2016). Other times, other manners: How Do different generations use social media? 2016 Hawaii University International Conferences, 14, 125–136.

Gazit, T., & Aharony, N. (2018). Factors explaining participation in WhatsApp groups: An exploratory study. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 70(4), 390-413. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-03-2018-0053

Goel, A., & Gupta, L. (2020). Social media in the times of COVID-19. JCR: Journal of Clinical Rheumatology, 26(6). https://doi.org/10.1097/rhu.0000000000001508

Hänninen, R., Taipale, S., & Korhonen, A. (2021). Refamilisation in the broadband society – The effects of ICTs on family solidarity in Finland. Journal of Family Studies, 27(2), 161-177. https://doi.org/10.1080/13229400.2018.1515101

Hassan, H. (2020, May 11). Malaysia’s conditional movement control order extended for another four weeks to June 9. The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/malaysias-conditional-movement-control-order-extended-for-another-four-weeks-to-june-9

Jafari, J., & Scott, N. (2014). Muslim world and its tourisms. Annals of Tourism Research, 44, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2013.08.011

Karpisek, F., Baggili, I., & Breitinger, F. (2015). WhatsApp network forensics: Decrypting and understanding the WhatsApp call signaling messages. Digital Investigation, 15(October), 110–118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diin.2015.09.002

Koçak, A., & Vergiveren, Ö. Y. (2019). Group-based communication: Contents and practices of WhatsApp group use by generations and genders. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 9(4), e201922. https://doi.org/g65r

Kisner, K., Parlakian, R., & MacLaughlin, S. (2017). Grandparents who care. Washington, DC: Zero to Three. https://www.pafec.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Grandparents-Who-Care_-A-Literature-Review-2.pdf

Krishen, A. S., Berezan, O., Agarwal, S., & Kachroo, P. (2016). The generation of virtual needs: Recipes for satisfaction in social media networking. Journal of Business Research, 69(11), 5248–5254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.04.120

Lukman, S. (2020, January). Understanding the importance WhatsApp group and how indonesian students utilize the platform in Australia. PCCS 2019: Proceedings of the 1st Padjadjaran Communication Conference Series, PCCS 2019, 9 October 2019, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia (p. 92). European Alliance for Innovation. https://scholar.archive.org/work/yym5dgw6ejee3lrkuodbdod7m4/access/wayback/https://eudl.eu/pdf/10.4108/eai.9-10-2019.2291114

Makita, M., Mas-Bleda, A., Stuart, E., & Thelwall, M. (2021). Ageing, old age and older adults: A social media analysis of dominant topics and discourses. Ageing & Society, 41(2), 247-272. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X19001016

Matassi, M., Boczkowski, P. J., & Mitchelstein, E. (2019). Domesticating WhatsApp: Family, friends, work, and study in everyday communication. New Media & Society, 21(10), 2183–2200. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819841890

Meeuwis, I. H., van Rooijen, E. M., & Verhagen, W. I. (2020). The use of WhatsApp messenger: An important tool in modern neurological examination. Acta Neurologica Belgica, 120(5), 1045-1049. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13760-020-01435-x

Nimrod, G., Lemish, D., & Elias, N. (2019). Grandparenting with media: Patterns of mediating grandchildren’s media use. Journal of Family Studies, 1-19. https://doi.org/g65s

Orlu-Orlu, R. F. H. C. (2017). A discursive analysis of the use of social media in building relationships. Ebonyi State University Journal of Mass Communication, 4(1), 257-271. http://www.ebsujmc.com/uploads/820187_1527710515.pdf

PrakashYadav, G., & Rai, J. (2017). The Generation Z and their social media usage: A review and a research outline. Global Journal of Enterprise Information System, 9(2), 110-116. http://www.gjeis.com/index.php/GJEIS/article/view/222

Tang, K. H. D. (2020). Movement control as an effective measure against Covid-19 spread in Malaysia: An overview. Journal of Public Health (Germany), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-020-01316-w

Terry, G., Hayfield, N., Clarke, V., & Braun, V. (2017). Thematic analysis. In C. Willig & W. S. Rogers (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research in psychology (2nd ed., Part 1: Methodologies, No. 2, pp. 17-37.

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=AAniDgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA17&dq=thematic+analysis&ots=doj5omAdH2&sig=jactSA5p9l9lbSeQKD_5KXUGSts


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


e-ISSN: 2289-1528