To browse Academia. Non-media-centric perspectives", edited by J. Helle-Valle and A. Storm-Mathisen, Berghahn Books. This paper examines how WhatsApp, a messenger application for smartphones, is being used by the members of a transnational Nigerien family to communicate on a daily basis. From this perspective, WhatsApp plays an important role in the regeneration of the extended family. However, it is not replacing or serving as a substitute for the kin group in real life. The paper uses a Bourdieusian framework.
As such it conceives of the family as an entity that, to perpetuate, needs to produce and reproduce a continuous set of social and symbolic bonds that hold the members together and distinguish them from others. The paper is based on semi-structured interviews carried out both face-to-face and by phone with 15 members of the WhatsApp extended family named M. The paper is divided in three parts. The first part provides the background for the study population and presents the major social characteristics of the population.
The second part details why the members of the family group chose WhatsApp as a messaging service as well as what they use WhatsApp for, particularly when it comes to intrafamilial sociability. Finally, the third part discusses the paradoxical consequences derived from the use of WhatsApp. This research work discussed the expression of love relationships in new media, particularly in a social networking platform; Facebook.
Its objectives were achieved through the juxtaposition of this idea in line with further exploration as expressed in a Nigerian song titled Facebook Love, a seminal hip-hop song which expressed goings-on on the social networking site, Facebook. It noted that love relationships took two dimensions which are positive and negative. The study found that love relationships across new media platforms are easy to start up, interactive with chat and instant messaging facilities, and provide a wider array of networking possibilities.
In contrast to these however, the kind of love proclaimed there is riddled with deceit, lies, addiction, and infatuation among some other things that people tend to avoid in face-to-face communication.
