Network Shocks and Social Support Among Spanish, Dutch, and Italian WhatsApp Users During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Crisis: An Exploratory Analysis of Digital Social Resilience

Authors

  • Marc Esteve-Del-Valle University of Groningen, Department of Media and Journalism Studies Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, Spain
  • Elisabetta Costa Assistant Professor, Department of Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen (the Netherlands)
  • Berber Hagedoorn Assistant Professor, Department of Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen (the Netherlands)

Keywords:

COVID-19, network shock, social ties, social support, digital social resilience, WhatsApp

Abstract

This research investigates how people across Europe used WhatsApp to cope with social isolation during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted 30 semi-structured interviews (10 per country) with young adults (ages 25–49 years) from the urban areas of Barcelona (Spain), Groningen (the Netherlands), and Milan (Italy). Our results reveal that the pandemic shock “turtled up” WhatsApp communications, with individuals falling back on families and close friends (strong ties), from whom they obtained emotional and informational support to cope with the anxieties and fears of the pandemic, thereby increasing their resilience to the crisis. Despite the centrality of strong ties, our data also show that it was the persistence of, above all, humorous communication exchanges with acquaintances (weak ties) that helped individuals feel accompanied during the crisis. Furthermore, we found evidence of the emergence of communication with latent ties (e.g., former partners) as an added source of social support.

Author Biographies

Marc Esteve-Del-Valle, University of Groningen, Department of Media and Journalism Studies Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, Spain

Marc Esteve Del Valle is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Media and Journalism Studies at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands). His research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of digital communication networks and social change, with a particular interest in online political networks. Marc’s research has been published in numerous academic journals and edited volumes. And he has received grants and scholarships from many public and private institutions.

Elisabetta Costa, Assistant Professor, Department of Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen (the Netherlands)

Elisabetta is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Media and Journalism Studies at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands). She is a social anthropologist and media scholar researching social media, personal relationships, politics and gender in Turkey, the Middle East and Italy. She is the author of Social Media in Southeast Turkey (UCL Press, 2016) and co-author of How the World Changed Social Media (UCL Press, 2016). She has published in Ethnos, Global Perspectives, the Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, New Media & Society, and Oriente Moderno. 

Berber Hagedoorn, Assistant Professor, Department of Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen (the Netherlands)

Berber is an Assistant Professor in Media Studies & Audiovisual Culture at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands). Her research interests revolve around screen cultures (representations and crossmedia storytelling practices) and audiovisual cultural memory in Europe. Hagedoorn is Vice-Chair of the ECREA Television Studies Section and EUscreen Foundation Board Member and organizes cooperation for European research and education into television’s history and its future as a multi-platform storytelling practice. She is the co-editor of two special issues on the ‘youthification’ of television in Critical Studies in Television (issues 16.2 and 16.4 in 2021) and the forthcoming edited volume New Challenges in European Television Series: National Experiences in a Transnational Context (Editorial Comares).

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Published

2022-03-28

Issue

Vol. 16 (2022)

Section

Articles

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