Sociability in quarantine times: WhatsApp seen as a social interaction tool during the COVID-19 pandemics

Abstract

Man is a natural social being. The need to communicate is something inherent to his own existence. But how can he communicate with other people in times of quarantine and social isolation, which need to be followed due to the coronavirus pandemics? The WhatsApp app can be conveyed as a virtual ally to supply such demand, once it enables the interaction of people who do not see each other personally, but who, for some reason, are socially connected. By means of informational, conversational and even playful messages, such app serves as a tool for sociability and socialization to continue existing among people during the quarantine times. In this paper, we aim at showing real examples of three groups of people who use this app and the interaction fullfilled by the exchanging of messages in such groups, so that we can observe how sociability is held in such circumstances. By using references of researchers who have already written about sociability held in social networks, such as Recuero (2004), Haroche (2011), Simmel (1983), Palacios (1996) and Santos (2014), and by applying both the bibliographic methodology as well as the passive, structured observation performed in a virtual environment, where we have observed the conversations exchanged among the members of the three WhatsApp groups studied in this paper, we could observe results which convey that, although physically distant, these people continue performing sociability acts, which, during the quarantine, are only possible to occur due to the use of the WhatsApp app.