Sources...Social Experiment.

In a world where social media is one of the sole ways to get information, and stalk people (formally known as ethnography), it is difficult to tear yourself away from any form of Social Networking for a whole day. We tried it...

Case study.

REI.

-It was a beautiful Sunday morning. Rei woke up and took up her phone. Immediately, she opened up Whatsapp. A Social Networking application which works very much like texting. Her friends had messaged her, and she replied. FAIL! Later in the day, it suddenly dawned on Rei that she had failed the experiment.

-Her reflections are as followed.

" When I first got up, I used Whatsapp because it is sort of a habit to check for my messages. I forgot about the experiment completely. Later in the day, I remembered that I was not supposed to use any form of Social Networking. At that point, I was unsure of what to do. I thought of calling one of my groupmates, but eventually, I just decided to let it go. "

"If I had remembered to do the experiment, I think I would have felt rather upset. I rely a lot on social networking, especially Whatsapp, to chat with friends whom I do not see very often. Also, I can get a lot of updates from my friends through texting and Whatsapp. Circumstances can change drastically over a short period of time. Social networking sites are a quick and efficient way to stay in the know."

-EXTRA INFORMATION.: Rei has not been using Whatsapp for 1 week since today, and she still finds herself constantly turning on her Wifi, as a security blanket, even though she knows that she has no longer installed Whatsapp. Her plan is to see how long she can last without Whatsapp.

-Rei's withdrawal.

"In Whatsapp, you can see whether a person is online, and whether or not they have seen your text, whether they will reply you. This is because Whatsapp makes use of 3G and Wifi to update you on whether or not the person you are Whatsapping is online, or if not, when they were last online. This way, you can see when they last checked their Whatsapp messages, or whether or not it is convenient to text them. "

"Also, if you are chatting with your friends, not only can you anticipate their next text, it is also absolutely free. Without Whatsapp, I am unable to tell whether or not it is convenient to text my friends. Also, I do not know when they will reply me and feel slightly anxious if they do not reply immediately, mainly because I am afraid that for some unapparent reason, I have upset them. What is more, I have to limit the number of text messages I send out because it may cost a lot of money. These restrictions drive me crazy because I feel so deprived without Whatsapp."