Investigating the Impact of WhatsApp on Family and Friend Relationships in Urban Sri Lanka

WhatsApp has gained recognition for being one of the most frequently used forms of communication in Sri Lanka, which is highly significant for maintaining familial and social relations in an environment characterized by increased urbanization. This paper investigates the use of WhatsApp for social communication among people in the Colombo district, where rapid changes in lifestyle, along with the impact of digitization and migration, have changed the dynamics of personal communication. Adopting a qualitative, interpretivist approach, this study uses semi-structured interviews as a data collection method for 20 participants (10 for familial interactions through WhatsApp and another 10 for friends), sampled through purposeful sampling based on age, gender, and occupation. Thematic analysis, this study found five main aspects of WhatsApp usage, including building strong family relations, maintaining long friendships, intergenerational conversations, emotional support in emergencies, and staying connected in a context of transnational migration. Based on the results of the study, one can conclude that the application allows not only carrying out routine interpersonal relations but also helps to transform traditional intimacy and belonging to the virtual space. At the same time, the issues concerning the violation of privacy, excessive reliance on the platform, and the problem of generational differences in the use of technology have been highlighted. This work, based on Uses and Gratifications Theory and Media Richness Theory, improves the comprehension of digital kinship and friendship practices in South Asia. The practical implications of the results include suggestions for digital-literacy programs to be implemented among the elderly population and for those interventions which seek to find a balance between digital communication and face-to-face communication in an urban environment. In addition, the paper underlines the importance of WhatsApp in everyday social interactions in Colombo and the need for further research in other comparative settings.