TY - JOUR AU - Cruz, Edgar Gómez AU - Harindranath, Ramaswami PY - 2020/01/05 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - WhatsApp as 'technology of life': Reframing research agendas JF - First Monday JA - FM VL - 25 IS - 12 SE - DO - 10.5210/fm.v25i12.10405 UR - https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/10405 SP - AB - <p>In this paper, we present a few ethnographic vignettes on the use of WhatsApp from a study in Mexico City. We suggest WhatsApp is a paradigmatic example of how a particular technology becomes an infrastructure to sustain, and therefore shape, a wide range of quotidian activities, from personal to economic, from spiritual to political. WhatsApp exemplifies what we call <em>technologies of life</em>, as such technologies mediate almost all aspects of social life. On this basis, we propose two interventions into the research agenda that go beyond data-centric approaches and focus on the lived-experiences of individuals, families, and communities.</p> ER -