Abstract:

Instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp or BlackBerry Messenger (BBM from now on) have attained a wide and rapid spread in society, and especially among the young in education, among whom behaviors that could be considered to be indicative of addiction or stress have started to be noted. This study aims to identify whether there is indeed addiction to these applications and to find out whether they cause anxiety and stress to their users. The current study aims to analyze how young adults use new means of communication and, especially, instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp and BBM. The objective is to get to know whether youngsters misuse or overuse such applications, abuse that may cause stress or anxiety. In fact, that is the hypothesis that is tried to be proven or refuted with the present study: Spanish youngsters show high degrees of addiction to free instant messaging applications, what makes them suffer from stress and anxiety. The data obtained from surveys collected from 247 young people leads to the conclusion that the use of such applications causes stress and anxiety due to the need to get immediate response to messages. Certain level of addiction to instant messaging applications is also found.

Keywords:

Communication, education, instant messaging, WhatsApp, addiction, stress.