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Research into Design for a Connected World pp 473–482Cite as

Social Sustainability of Online Instant Messaging Platform—WhatsApp

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Part of the book series: Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies ((SIST,volume 134))

Abstract

We present an analysis of Social Sustainability of online communication platform “WhatsApp”. We formulated a definition for a Socially Sustainable System in the context of online instant messaging platforms. Based on the definition, we performed a thorough study on WhatsApp. A set of factors were identified that affect the social sustainability of WhatsApp. The factors and the frequency of their recurrence were used to determine the perceived importance of the stages of interaction (based on Gulf of Evaluation and Gulf of Execution) in terms of social sustainability. It was found that “Goal Formation” is perceived to be the most important stage followed by “Action Specification”, “Evaluation” and “Perception”. A set of tangible artifacts that influence the system usage were also identified. We can move towards designing sustainable communication platforms by analyzing each stage of the interaction based on our study and by taking logical decisions as a designer in order to ensure a healthy and liveable online community.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, India

    Shubhangi Gupta & Pankaj Upadhyay

Authors
  1. Shubhangi Gupta
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  2. Pankaj Upadhyay
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Correspondence to Shubhangi Gupta .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Bangalore, India

    Amaresh Chakrabarti

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Gupta, S., Upadhyay, P. (2019). Social Sustainability of Online Instant Messaging Platform—WhatsApp. In: Chakrabarti, A. (eds) Research into Design for a Connected World. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 134. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-5974-3_41

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-5974-3_41

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-5973-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-5974-3

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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