Social media and catharsis in Africa: Examining the role of WhatsApp in venting stress in women

摘要

This paper investigates the role that social media, and particularly WhatsApp mobile applications plays in venting stress and other related aggressive behaviors among African couples. It seeks to examine the relationship that exists between WhatsApp usage and being happy, or rather catharsis. It leverages the existing datasets from the Afro-barometer (Africa Tracking Internet Progress-ATIP) website. Essentially the website maintains archives for all African network development and telecommunication datasets. Therefore, this study uses the aforementioned to argue that married women belonging to WhatsApp social groups in Africa have higher levels of catharsis. In other words, the finding of this study indicates that there was a strong and significant correlation between the time spent on social media (Duration-Drt) and the feeling of belonging (Bln) and therefore, catharsis (Eph).