“The Bloody WhatsApp Thing”: A Qualitative Investigation of Experiences of Social Messaging in a Volunteering Setting

Abstract

Research on the use of social messaging systems and on volunteering has indicated divergent experiences of each. We bring together research in these two domains using an examination of experiences of WhatsApp use by volunteers for a specific charity. Our qualitative analysis illustrates benefits and challenges of using WhatsApp in this specific context. While WhatsApp was perceived as facilitating information exchange in support of volunteering activity, it was also seen as a compromise. Moreover, the perceived noisy intrusion of WhatsApp alerts and lack of a clear, shared purpose of the group was experienced negatively. Our findings are used to discuss some of the potential practical implications for volunteer experiences and additionally contribute to the development of our understanding of the volunteering process via the introduction of the concept of digital volunteerspaces.

Keywords:

• WhatsApp
• volunteering
• digital volunteerspaces
• digital volunteerplaces
• qualitative methods
• social messaging

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Sofia Petisca for her helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Authors’ contributions

Rachel Manning: Conceptualization; Formal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Resources; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Writing - original draft; Writing – review & editing. Phoebe Brook-Rowland: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Validation; Visualization; Writing - original draft; Writing – review & editing.

Disclosure statement

Phoebe Brook-Rowland was a volunteer at The Charity at the time of data collection. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We indicate a separation between volunteerspace and volunteerplace here to reflect the (somewhat slippery) distinction between the workspace and workplaces, whereby the former refers to a more individual level of space for working, and the latter involves more collectively inhabited, organisationally chosen architectures (e.g. Ferreira et al., 2021). We illustrate this point further later in the paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rachel Manning

Rachel Manning has worked as a lecturer at various UK HEIs over the past 20 years. Her primary research interests have been prosocial behaviour, collective identities, and the spatial dimension of human experiences. She is a member of the Volunteering Research Hub based at University of Winchester.

Phoebe Brook-Rowland

Phoebe Brook-Rowland is a researcher and PhD candidate based in the Institute for Sport and Physical Activity Research (ISPAR) at the University of Bedfordshire (UK). Her research focuses on increasing physical activity in people with long term health conditions, specifically via training physical activity practitioners in effective behaviour change.