The Students’ Use of Mobile Instant Messaging Applications: Deleuze and Guattari’s Nomadism Analysis

Abstract

This chapter presents an analysis of how first-year studentsFirst-year students use mobile instant messaging applicationsMobile instant messaging applications during their transition into a South African university of technology. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari’sDeleuze and Guattari concept of nomadism, the study unpacks how mobile instant messaging platforms supported students in new ways of living, thinking, and accessing spaces where they shared their experiences, and generated new knowledge and ways of learningLearning. The study used a qualitative research approach. Data was collected from a first-year WhatsApp chat group at the university of technology that was purposefully selected. The data was analyzed using content analysis. Research findings showed that first-year studentsFirst-year students used the mobile instant messaging platform in imaginative ways of interacting with their peers and lecturers to support their process of becomingBecoming in a new educational setting. The first-year students used the mobile instant messaging applicationMobile instant messaging applications to overcome learningLearning structural constraints, find new ways of learning, and raise concerns to management about issues that affected their well-being. The findings offer a better understanding of the way first-year students use mobile instant messaging applications in the context of higher educationHigher Education.