Controversies in WhatsApp groups of elementary school families during the pandemic

Abstract

This article analyzes the forms of interaction in WhatsApp groups of elementary school families in the City of Buenos Aires (CABA), during the isolation caused by the Coronavirus Pandemic. We register dynamics of consensus and polarization around political topics, which were activated due to the restrictions on school attendance in the context of the Pandemic. For this purpose, we study conversations in WhatsApp groups in four schools in CABA during the year 2021. The methodology of this work was based on participant observation in some groups, and on the analysis of conversations in groups in which we did not participate and in-depth interviews with their participants.

The findings show that similar dynamics took place in different schools, such as new WhatsApp groups were formed among ideologically like-minded people to share strategies on school attendance. But it is also shown that even in these new affinity groups, the conversation became polarized and conflicts emerged after the changes in the health situation in mid-2021. Finally, it also shows how in other schools the conversations were strongly structured around some "authoritative voices", for example those of medical mothers.