WhatsApp: fleeing from the voice to the "hypertext"

Abstract

The article analyzes the use of WhatsApp application by a team of students, teachers, administrators and managers, who have found this tool a way to establish communication processes “direct” way university community, but mediated by avatars, text and images that allow them to escape a possible “verbal discomfort”, reducing stress for a given communication process. Thus, the exponential growth in the use of this tool to its simplicity, capacity and services, both of which appear to have “usurped” the place of the voice in the use of mobile devices, but especially because it favors the contact is not only many users simultaneously, this allows the use of thousands of multimedia elements and generates a “horizontal” contacts mediated by “communication barriers of protection.” This allows users to feel more freedom to communicate ideas, concepts and positions on a particular topic