WhatsApp →Always Available
I am a person who is old enough to have used yahoo chatrooms and Orkut social network. I have also been a small-time user of the Viber app to make calls. When I was young, it was many years ago, we had to forward a message by copying it so many times, sending it to a pre-determined group, used to type incessantly in messages. Message count used to be restricted to 100, and you need to have booster packs to up the message count. But these are zoom and WhatsApp days, billion-dollar deals are being signed out of WhatsApp. Consumers flock to buy a basic range of smartphones just to have WhatsApp installed.
WhatsApp is akin to God, omnipresent, and omnipotent.
This app with about 20–30k lines of code and no sign-in credentials or password is so powerful all over the world. The company just had 55 people on its payroll, all the development work were carried over from Russia. Mobile carriers used to charge hefty messaging fees, and this app was able to leapfrog them all. By 2011, users were sending in more than a billion daily messages. When FB acquired it for over 19bn $, I was flabbergasted, what an astronomical sum for an app, and that too by a company that had a commanding social media presence.
But Mark is right, you can live without Facebook but not without WhatsApp.
First, it is free, and simple to use, and nothing was changed even on a yearly basis with updates and fixes. Most importantly it rarely crashed, and with minimal graphics, it was easy on the memory part. Elders, kids were all blue ticked in app adoption with this simple usage policy. Adults were hooked to it, by the ease of use, and the available group options. A million groups were started, with your school friends, tuition friends, stalked girls group, family group, family group minus the oldies, office group, office group without the manager, running, stocks, adult videos, intellectual group, language groups, and a billion others.
When the government announced, that admin of WhatsApp groups would be targeted for unfair message forwarding, all members were made as admins overnight. Let everyone get caught instead of responsible sending of messages. Whatsapp business accounts have proliferated, everyone from biriyani delivery guy, diagnostics guy to courier delivery ask for your WhatsApp location sharing, and instantly reach the place with no hiccups. The data that is being shared, house location being shared with others, can the date be misused is a story for another time.
Office Whatsapp groups are the predators of the worst kind. You are added into the group as soon as you enter a project, the manager shares update, you are forced to share all updates in the group, all team members check for each other online status, when you go offline for a few minutes, managers check it out with you. Since everyone knows your mobile acts as your third hand now, if you are offline, it implies that you are traveling or sleeping. Your last seen time is tracked, the blue tick of a message is noted, your response is graded. It is like being in a big boss home, but you are in your own home. Official news and documents are shared in the groups, and responses are expected almost instantly.
Since WhatsApp is only one app for both office, family, and entertainment, the line is often blurred for our inconvenience.
Whatsapp status is the rage now, with people posting it almost a dozen every day. I religiously take screenshots from my Facebook to start this status train. I firmly believe that I educate and entertain my contacts for without me, they would be deprived of this knowledge. I like many others also check for the read time stamp and number of views for this post. I know a billion others like me in the world are doing the same. Users change the DP, convey something to the world, there are zombies who do not anything except preying on other display pictures, status, and messages.
People do not believe the news until it has circulated via WhatsApp. It is the de-facto official news for all things in the nation. Business owners cannot escape from this app, for this is the lifeline to millions of consumers. You can schedule an appointment, a service, a hair cut, order a Rolls Royce all via the comfort of this app. It has really become ubiquitous for our own bad. I tried to unsuccessfully delete this app a dozen times, before reinstalling it within hours.
The first time, I do, I inform my immediate family that I would not be on WhatsApp, they instantly question why?. Not just one why, but five why’s like the famous Ishiqawa Japanese technique. Your project teammates ask and your team lead issues a strict ultimatum and question your existence. If one man could escape the noose, other victims would cry foul over it. So it is denied and installed again, the little green icon is smiling at you. You get paid rent by your roommate, your doctor tele-consults via this app video calling, all your trip photos are only sent in this and not in any other format. I have unsuccessfully deleted the app more than a dozen times, only to install it a few hours later.
You actually begin to think, if your very life exists on this app or in your heart.
I would love to hear stories of any brave soul who has been able to delete this app and survive for more than a week in this modern world. Kudos to you, and welcome to this brave new world.
The real power of WhatsApp is in notifying the other of the “presence”. In the olden day, when calls were costly, people used to give missed calls to notify others' presence.
In this new age, last seen is your live ECG.
