I am 27 years old and, in the last seven days, I have spent more than 8 hours of my life in front of the screen of my cell phone reading Twitter.The statistics of my phone say that Spotify was the second application that I used most in the last week: 14 hours of background music (those are the hours I heard music on my cell phone, before arriving at work to connect my headphones to Computer).

But, in the third place of the use that I give to my worn battery, the favorite icon of Costa Rica shines green: WhatsApp.

WhatsApp notifications are the first news I will receive on a normal day: an audio message of friends living in another time spyIn the afternoon, a message from the group created by the bosses to send the commands that will be fulfilled in the work schedule.

According to UNIMER's latest research, I am part of 92.2% of young adults - among the 18 and 35 years - who usually review their cell phone as soon as they wake up.

Also, I am part of the 76.6% that prioritizes WhatsApp without even having breakfast.

Chats with friends, couples, families and co -workers displaced the romantic and privileged place that the morning caffeine before had and, also, the one that had the traditional newspaper.

Ten years ago, without the advent of smartphones, cellular communication was concentrated in sending and receiving text information for a short message services (SMS in English).The news were accessible only through paper, the TV and, after lighting the computer, the immaculate virtuality of an internet browser.

Now, Unimer describes, having WhatsApp is indispensable for at least 44.2% of Ticos Ticos.

The application becomes even more inescapable for the lives of those who exceed 25 years and for women (48.8% of them consider that it is indispensable, says UNIMER).

The maximum need for WhatsApp has about 37% of those who have not yet fulfilled that age.For boys and girls who belong to my age group, between 26 and 30 years, WhatsApp is indispensable for 50% of us.

For those over 30, the maximum need is almost 49%.

In a world where a cell phone can easily manipulate sound and image, in which it is possiblebecame the favorite application of young life?

After WhatsApp

What was first?The egg or the chicken?Centuries of science, we have allowed us to understand that the question is not perverse or capcious: cell division is the beginning of life.The egg is the largest cell within which life is created, matures and grows.

The iPhone is the 21st century technology egg.Apple's cell phone entered the market in June 2007.Two years later, in 2009, almost 46.000 applications - without counting games - were available in their shopping store.That was the year that WhatsApp also reached that same space.

"It started when I bought an iPhone.It bothered me that I had lost calls every time I went to the gym, ”explained the WhatsApp CEO and his co -founder, Jan Koum, during a conference at the Historical Museum of California computers, in 2017.

"We did not set out to build a company.We only wanted to build a product that people used, ”said Koum."We were excited when it went on the market and we disappointed when nobody was using it".

Koum tenía 33 años cuando creó WhatsApp para el mercado junto con su colega Brian Acton, después de que ambos se conocieron trabajando como informáticos para la empresa Ernst & Young.As seed capital, they received $ 250.000 of former Yahoo!

Koum was just 15 years old when the World Computer Network (World Wide Web) and the second generation of cell technology (called 2G) coincided in 1991.

When WhatsApp was created in 2009, developed countries had assimilated the penetration of wireless connection (the famous Wi-Fi).According to a study of the PEW Research Center, 32% of Americans claimed to have connected to the Internet through a mobile device to “review the email, search for information or send instant messages”.

That same year, Apple allowed "push" notifications, that is, applications could send alerts even when they were not in use.

The messaging apps competed with each other to overcome the limitations of information that the SMS had - the users could only use 160 characters by message and could not send images—.

Google kept Google Talk for many years before consolidating Hangouts as its main messaging in 2013 and is now the native tool of the Android cellular operating system.

The favorite of the calls via web, Skype, was bought by Microsoft for more than $ 8.000 million and converged the services that Windows Live Messenger gave with a lower quality.

But WhatsApp was not always a goldfish in those commercial races.Its growth was very slow compared to other Silicon Valley companies.

Koum and Acton kept WhatsApp as a free application to avoid charges in the verification of users (entrepreneurs wanted to save the cost of the SMS that the company should send for each user to confirm the purchase made).

For February 2013, they had 50 employees to maintain a 200 million users service.In December of the same year, WhatsApp reached 400 million per month of users.

And it was just a year after Facebook bought the company for $ 19.000 million;That is, more than double what Microsoft invested by Skype and despite having a native messaging service, Messenger.

In the middle of the controversial purchase, Koum was in charge of calming the doubts of the users who distrusted Mark Zuckerberg's company.

“They can continue using WhatsApp, it doesn't matter what place in the world are or what smartphone they are using.You can tell that no announcement will interrupt your communications, ”wrote the CEO of the application in his blog.

"The growth and use that WhatsApp has are driven by the simple, powerful and instantaneous capabilities of the messaging we offer," he described.

Agile and simple

According to UNIMER's investigation, 91% of the 500 young ticos surveyed think that WhatsApp is useful because it allows agile communication with their contacts.

Among other of the most striking qualities that Costa Rican young users stand out are groups in groups, the possibility of sending and receiving audios and the little consumption of mobile data.

Those same qualities were mentioned within the 15 in -depth interviews that the researchers carried out before applying the survey through Facebook.UNIMER gave part of the interviews, only with the information of the genre and the age of its participants, to the Sunday Magazine.

The Unimer project director, Ana Raquel Meléndez, explained that the questions for the statistical instrument were gestated within the answers about uses in their interviewees.

UNIMER's results describe a panorama in which young Ticos maintain their lives integrated into mobile technology and vice versa.

In the 2017 report of the LADE program the information and knowledge (prosic), of the University of Costa Rica, it is claimed that there are 143 subscriptions to mobile phone plans per 100 inhabitants.

[96% of cell phone users live glued to WhatsApp]

“When one had no credit, many years ago, he could not connect to the Internet to send messages.Instead, now, you cook for a wifi and, no matter how much the phone does not work, you can send a WhatsApp, ”explained a 23 -year -old user.

The differences in using the application between men and women in our country are few and not so significant, describes UNIMER.

They point out that men are less pending than women to review their WhatsApp, or not messages of messages in their cell phones.Women consider most that WhatsApp limits their concentration while carrying out other activities.

In some of the interviews, women mentioned that being aware of group conversations is one of the distractions that they consider more harmful.

However, UNIMER also determined that 99.2% of those who took the survey are part of a WhatsApp group.

Young Ticos Tolerate mostly that the people with whom they talk face to face are pending to check the screens of their cell phones.

Only 16.4% of respondents believe that their interlocutor is selfless in speaking when he attends to his cell phone during an interaction.

"They have stopped paying attention to me.For example, my girlfriend can't do two things at once, so I have.

How to Suggest Your Relatives Stay In A Hotel Rather Than Your Home http: // t.CO/V2FZXSRUBF

— Vacation GG Mon Jun 02 07:40:12 +0000 2014

Image and audio

In 2009, WhatsApp was created to send and receive both texts without the traditional limit of characters and images.Voice messaging (the famous "audios") were integrated into service as of 2013.

In 2015, developers allowed audio calls and opened a modality of transmission of stories, videos and images with expiration of 24 hours.Technology analysts interpreted him as a way to compete with the messaging service with Snapchat images.That same year, the application also crossed platforms: users began accessing their accounts from the screen of their computers.

In 2016, WhatsApp integrated video calls and allowed users to send attached documents (texts, presentations, spreadsheets).

During the annual Facebook developer conference - organized last March in California - the company announced that it will premiere group calls during 2018.

The latest Red506 statistical study - produced by UNIMER for the weekly El Financiero - identifies WhatsApp as one of the “social networks” most used by Costa Ricans.

Although Jan Koum and Brian Acton founded WhatsApp to send and receive text, the universe of their small application expanded enough to offer the image and audio, not as complementary languages but even as the main dish.

According to Unimer, the content that is shared more frequently in their group conversations are viral memes and audios (78.8% of respondents send content taken from other places) and the second place is the images or videos generated by themselvesUsers (70.2%).

The third place is occupied by the "news, opinion and information articles" (64.9% of respondents share this category).

Despite that UNIMER respondents prefer to send "viral" content, a majorselected as the main justification).

"I have left because I am filled with the phone's memory when it is very active or because I am not interested," described a 30 -year -old woman interviewed by Unimer.

Social Revolution

By December 2017, the number of users who use WhatsApp in the world reached 1.500 million (the world population is around 7.600 million people according to the Organization of Nations;That is, the app is in the cell phones almost fifth of humanity).

It is not arrogant to affirm that WhatsApp has revolutionized the phenomena of world communication.

Users have the opportunity to share personal information and send files with everyone (a globalization mileAnd, in addition, maintain information channels that are deprived (on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, the main attraction is that they are usually public).

“In each society, people use social media differently but, in general, while Facebook has become a public sand where people care about how they look at others, WhatsApp has gathered smaller groups thanThey can speak more privately, ”explained the British Anthropological Research Project Why we post a The Guardian.

Without imagining it, WhatsApp managed to merge written and oral communication thanks to the design of their audio messages.

In Costa Rica, Unimer says that 73% of young people surveyed use the application to make traditional calls.However, a higher percentage says that you usually send voice messages (85%).

However, the use of audios is slightly more common among women - 88% of them against 81% in men - and who are ages between 26 and 30 years --87% of them -.

“I really like listening to audios because it saves me to write and also command them.He is much more agile, ”said a 26 -year -old girl in an interview with the researchers.

The WhatsApp service is so agile that services and businesses have taken advantage of its platform to establish direct channels with its customers.Doctors who open a conversation to have direct contact with their patients, stores that receive orders from their clothing catalog, books, cosmetics.The messaging application has the form that its users decide.

Last January, WhatsApp took note of the malleability of its services and, given the demand, premiered on Android a version for business profiles called WhatsApp Business.

[Companies will be able to communicate better with their customers through new WhatsApp 'app]

Regardless of whether the business uses that application alternative or not, UNIMER ensures that young Ticos are accustomed to solving their procedures and purchases in this way.

60% of respondents agree that WhatsApp is important to communicate with brands, shops and professionals.Direct contact seems useful to 84%.

"It's much faster and send you what you need.You don't have to do with the entire catalog, ”says a 23 -year -old ethics.

Love messaging

In the first Red 506 study, published in 2011, a digital panorama was described in which Costa Ricans practically did not have Internet access from their cell phones and in which they claimed to dedicate an average of 130 minutes a day daily to their social networks.

The penetration of the cell Internet deformed the isolated attention that the Ticos gave before their virtual interaction: the conversations are always resting on the bags, pockets and desks of the users.

In his survey, UNIMER tries to dimension how these changes have modified the communication of couples, mentioned as the second priority category with which adults under 35 are communicated (the first are the “friends in general”).

In general, young Ticos do not review the WhatsApp of their boyfriends or husbands without authorization (70% say they do not, but there are 30% that confirms having done it).

A majority of 85% say they know someone who has used the application to “flirt” with another person - and it is more common to claim it if they are under 31 years old -.However, a 41% minority accepts that they have linked on that same route.

Finishing a relationship by WhatsApp is, to date, unusual for young Ticos.Just 27% say that a romantic relationship has ended using this channel.

The future is in security

Ten years ago, the "blue check" had no cultural significance.

Text messages were sent as SMS and, unless there was a confirmation of the receiver, there was no way to know if they had reached their destination.As, decades earlier, letters were lost in postal offices without a trace.

For 2010, Twitter implemented the symbol to highlight its verified users - receipts of various professional fields -.

Four years ago, on the eve of being bought by Facebook, WhatsApp messag).

Out of receiving applause by the verification system, the application was widely criticized for violating the privacy of its users and, soon, it had to allow its users to manipulate the tool.

Among young Ticos, 86% have manipulated WhatsApp privacy settings.Even so, 78% allow their contacts to see the blue check that the received announces.

The Ticos are more concerned with the others see at what time they are connected within the application.More than half of respondents do not allow WhatsApp describe their connection status.

Considering that the application was built as a private network, it is no surprise that its users appreciate their safety and privacy.

After Facebook bought the company in 2014, its co -founders kept the clauses that protected and protect their customer information immovable.Even when Mark Zuckerberg's company tried to negotiate accesses to finance the service with advertising (as he had already done with Facebook and then, with Instagram).

[Mark Zuckerberg before privacy scandal: 'It was a huge mistake.It was my mistake, and I'm sorry ']

In a semester that has severely questioned the way in which Facebook manages the information that its users yield - so severely that Zuckerberg responded by its use before the US Supreme Court - WhatsApp has managed to stay untouched of all those messes.

Although they both became billionaires after sell.

Acton renounced WhatsApp in November 2017 and Koum last April, both to follow other projects.Facebook has not yet announced a CEO to replace it.

In spite.

About Unimer's study

It was made, between February and March 2018, by Unimer Central America with support from the Facebook community of the Diay page, it is my advice.

The study contemplated 15 in -depth interviews and, from this first stage, applied a self -administered online questionnaire for 500 people from Costa Rica.

The ages of the participants are between 18 and 35 years.The population included the same proportion of men and women.

The results have an error margin of 4.4 points to a 95% confidence level.