Death by WhatsApp

First, there was death by a thousand cuts, and then there was death by Whatsapp, with its myriad Good Mornings (GMs) and Happy Birthdays (HBD) that let some change their daily greeting to GMHBD. The lack of threading on WhatsApp posts makes it hard to ignore a thread or delete a thread that’s not of interest.

A poorly designed messaging app that has not evolved with times, threatens people’s sanity as phone memory and bandwidth get consumed. WhatsApp has accomplished a lot, it’s got people connected across borders, has helped network families living across continents, and helped people reconnect with the past and redefine their future.

It has rekindled friendships, encouraged passionate debate and helped folks create a personality at times very different from their normal selves. It’s only when you meet a person you realize how different they really are. Words uttered in a passion are often misread or misinterpreted without the non verbal cues.

Worst of all frustrations has been the forward … text, audio and video that are rapidly duplicated and shared to multiple chats, often simultaneously by well meaning participants wanting to share their wealth ( yes that’s what these forwarded items could be regarded as once you read them). Yes maybe there are a few who just like to forward all and sundry just to become the most frequent forwarder of all. Now let’s let them be for maybe they do so out of boredom.

So maybe we should introduce an altcoin that will be required, to forward anything. To reward the good forwards, once that forward is read by atleast 10 people the sender should be credited their charge. The coin will serve as a means of controlling the forwards.

All original content should still be free. The forwarders will go silent and then lose interest for not everyone has the patience to type even if they have an opinion or a point of view. Maybe Siri and Alexa and Ok google will offer to help. Or our FB persona now fully molded can take our place and make posts that are better than our own representation of ourselves.

Without the forwards will we lose participation? For after all how do we build a relationship — by talking about serious stuff, or wise cracking or by sharing our wealth(see earlier for my definition of wealth). Will we lose the edge by not imbibing all the fake news and not being the first one to share our mountain of knowledge in all our groups or will we just take the path of least resistance and silently exit the group to join another that lets us move FORWARD.

Maybe Zuckerberg should pay attention and evolve WhatsApp to the next generation. While we sit and ponder Andre Russell has hit six sixes, Salman has probably gone in and out of jail a couple of times, rain has spoiled the Cauvery protesters their living for another season and our phones are loaded with forwards. Be that as it may let us rejoice that we have this medium of free expression to share our views and values with others and learn a thing or two.