Digitally Mediated Research: WhatsApp Diaries in Times of Crisis and Beyond?

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown regulations implemented to curb its spread disrupted all facets of life. For many social scientists, it meant an inability to easily access research sites, creating a need for adaptation and resilience in data collection processes. One approach to answering these challenges has been the use of digital technologies for data collection. This paper critically reflects on the feasibility of digital research methods through the experiences of two research projects using digital diaries to understand community-based organisations. Together, the projects offer a longitudinal perspective on the use of digital diaries at the height of pandemic regulation and following from them. We conclude that, in the context of crises and an increasingly hybridised world, digital tools are an important alternative to traditional research methods; not necessarily replacing them but enhancing knowledge of social phenomena. However, the prevailing popularity of digital technologies for data collection, in the context of what we call a “convenience narrative,” has left thorough scholarly research compromised. As such, we outline best practices within a relatively new yet currently unstable methodological paradigm and argue for more research on the relationship between digital and traditional research methods.