What on earth
is whatsapp
Elsa Lycias Joel
What on earth is
whatsapp! I don't
dare to exclaim
aloud for I know
the many varieties
of reply I would
get in terms of looks and words.
Everybody is into it. Why has
whatsapp become such a big thing
now? As all of us know it's an idea whose time came long ago even
before I realized why people stopped
responding to my short messages or
handmade greeting cards or hand
written letters. Part of the logical
explanation is that it is due to the
technological developments in the
past decade.
To wish hundreds of people in one
go, whether we know them or not,
like them or not, with the same
greeting was impossible before the
dawn of mobile phones, whatsapp
and emails. Physically moving from
place to place to do so would cost us
a lot of time, energy and money.
Today, thanks to IT revolution,
increased bandwidth and similar
stuff that helps even good news and
forwards travel fast, far and wide.
What started as a trickle few years
ago as message forwarding business
(defined as task based forwarding,
which is basically people of all age
groups bothering each other across
the globe) has now become a tidal
wave. One category of forwarders
assume they do well enough to
generate awareness about anything
to everything, even going to the
extent of not letting people eat or
drink what they choose to or can
afford to. This category of
whatsappers is happy with the
success they've had until today with
the emergence of food and drinks
that are hard to find or even
pronounce, forget consuming.
"Exceptions are the rule" and true
as it can be, 'paying it forward'
happens when the forward reaches
the inbox of a Good Samaritan.
There is a now a clear shift from
real personal interactions to fake,
virtual and whatsapp chats. Emotions
have replaced real emotions. People
who send me varieties of emotions
are unable to display any emotion
when I meet them in person. Or, it
should have something to do with my
goof-ups that I always send some
random emotion as I'm still
struggling to learn what each one
means. Sooner or later there will be
universities offering courses on
emotions helping people like me.
I wasn't very much surprised until
I learnt how whatsapp influences
people living in remote villages. For
instance, my grandmother's
neighbour for 40 years spent her
entire day focusing on stealthily
letting her goats graze my
grandmother's garden and backyard.
This has moved up the ladder into
whatsapp chatting with my
grandmother on an everyday basis to
know her whereabouts so that her
task of feeding goats becomes easier.
A sting operation revealed that the
not-so-wise neighbour has very
limited knowledge on whatsapp and
WiFi and believes that my
grandmother speaks nothing but the
truth. That somebody isn't online
means that somebody isn't home.
Soon after turning off the WiFi my
grandmother gets ready with her
catapult and pebbles. So, directly or
indirectly technology keeps people
busy.
Demonetization or GST or come
what may, the whatsapp user boom
in India isn't likely to face
competition from anywhere, any part
of the universe as we outsource
whatsapping, on need, to anyone
who is awake and alert to change the
world. Unbelievable as I may sound,
many in my contact list outsource
their duty to toddlers at home and I
end up reading stuff that resemble a
coding language for scribble icon. Or
if is this a conspiracy to not let me get
my beauty sleep is my other doubt.
With the scorching pace of group
growth seen, quality has been
suffering. Group hopping is the rule
of the day. And there is a noticeable
absence of group admin
(administration) management. These
are growing pains to whatsapp fans.
The optimists aka (also known as)
hyperactive group members expect
the group admin to settle down with
offenders aka inactive group
members who also have another
profession, iron out teething
troubles, reach a level of maturity
and recreate a group with a different
name, one that would pull and
inspire a few more responsible 24x7
active members who would check
messages once a minute.
People everywhere, in homes,
workplaces, any form of transport
are busy exchanging ideas and
information as to how they handled
demonetization and how India
should be transformed into a super
power. Cellular or otherwise. Till
noon everyone are busy clearing
'good morning' or 'Good day' or
'Happy Birthday' wishes from
hundreds of people to make space
for 'Good Noon' wishes and life goes
on.
School goers have class groups
where everything except academics
is discussed. Those who aren't part of
such groups are treated as though
they don't belong to this planet or century. Understandable because in
classrooms they don't find enough
time to discuss whose whatsapp DP
is cool, the number of messages they
received and forwarded and who
owns the latest iphone. Names and
description of iphones are such that
Happily or sadly, many
employees realize
whatsapping robs them
of their promotions and
even jobs. In my friend's
two page report tabled
in her home last weekthe
family members
admitted that non-stop
whatsapping inside and
outside home did more
harm, thereby
vindicating the stand
taken by an anti nonstop
whatsapp volunteer,
the only one in the
neighbourhood without
a smart phone, who first
blew the whistle.
a teacher overhearing a student
discuss it would assume it to be
maths or chemistry or physics.
Happily or sadly, many employees
realize whatsapping robs them of
their promotions and even jobs. In
my friend's two page report tabled in
her home last week- the family
members admitted that non-stop
whatsapping inside and outside
home did more harm, thereby
vindicating the stand taken by an anti
non-stop whatsapp volunteer, the
only one in the neighbourhood
without a smart phone, who first
blew the whistle. The whole
neighbourhood is deliberating if or
not my friend and the volunteer
should be introduced to the new
world of smart phones and
whatsapp.
Now that stricter standards for
non-stop whatsapping are on the
anvil at her home, the issue of 'what
is normal/safe' threatens to get
embroiled in unnecessary
controversy engaging a new breed of
professionals called as whatsapp
counselors. Whatsapp while taking a
dump, under the shower, in the
kitchen, behind the wheels or when,
where and how is whatsapp
considered to be safe/normal is
emerging to a topic of research
among youngsters who understand
this to be a better reason for them to
handle whatsapp throughout their
lives, awake or asleep.
Just as a good medicine the right
dose of anything with regard to social
media is a remedy and not
poisonous. So the few and wise, also
named as technologically challenged
by the many technology savvy ones,
can only hope that whatsapp users
would at least come close to
determining the right dose. With it,
the house establishment can address
the larger issue of abuse and
quarantine, as and when necessary.
In many homes, parental attempts at
control are very vehement, but sadly
it all stops at an attempt as they
themselves are busy answering and
forwarding.
Modern society is indeed
characterized by a paradoxical set of
attributes when it comes to realities
of life. There is much obsession
about the number of contacts just as
'Likes' in FB, an urge to change the
whatsapp DP or status, thoroughly
pissed off with those who don't care
to update their status message but
very little human pro-social
sentiments.
In the face of this churning, I
conclude that a punitive attempt to
turn back the clock will not work but
educating people, not through
whatsapp, on the use and abuse of
whatsapp will.
Meanwhile, my loved ones are
coming to terms with my year old
status "Battery about to die" and
don't whatsapp me to find out if
I'm alright.