Whatsapp and My Friends :

There are so many people who use Whatsapp (hereinafter referred to as WA). Everyone has his own style of communicating. There are so many positives and negatives of using this medium.

I am myself a late entrant to WA as I started using it only two and a half years back. Earlier, I had taken a conscious decision to stay away from it so that I don’t waste time, as I was already on Facebook and actively using that.

But finally, I had to jump onto the WA bandwagon, since many friends were pestering me to use it since ages. Even matrimonial prospects were rolling their eyes on knowing that I don’t use Whatsapp, however two of them were sweet enough to use Facebook Messenger and SMS to communicate with me. Office colleagues always used to share pics and common topics on the office WA group and I was feeling left out. On an office outbound three years ago, since I was unable to see the pics that were clicked and shared on the WA Group, I had to tell a friend to mail them to me which was weird since she asked me why I don’t start using Whatsapp.

The first message I sent on WA was to my childhood friend, as she was the one who was constantly getting annoyed at my not using WA since I was communicating with her through SMS, which irritated her. The day I chose to install Whatsapp was the day I knew I would be meeting her at a function, as I knew that again she would give me funny looks and a sermon on why WA is useful. I installed it in the afternoon and told her at the function that I had started using Whatsapp just that very day. I quietly clicked a couple of her pics in the function and sent her the same then and there. She saw me clicking the pics, smiled and nodded in a funny manner. I sent her the pics with a message “See, I am using Whatsapp, you wanted me to use it, na…I am trying to see if I can send pics.”  She replied back “And I see that you are getting addicted to it, very fast !” She is a dear friend, she sends me dog pics and dog videos on WA simply because I like them though she has no affection for them.

Anyway, I finally started using WA and got hooked.

I have a friend from my earlier office who sends me a Good Morning card every morning with nice quotes on it. For some days, the cards stopped and I wrote to him enquiring about the same. He was pleasantly surprised that I like the cards and promised to start sending them again. He sends a card every morning without fail.

Likewise, I too formed a habit of starting my day by sending Good Morning cards to three of my friends. Two of them like them and the third only tolerated them (as I came to know only recently, so I stopped sending the same immediately). One of the two friends immediately sends a card in return or sometimes her card comes first and then I reciprocate. The other one replies happily, she likes cards having flowers in them. If there are any quotes in the cards, she takes the quotes seriously and give her views on the card, whether she agrees or disagrees with the thinking.

A friend of mine is a fun guy and he absolutely loves girls. He is fond of sending pics and videos of girls, to his close friends. Once when he sent me ten such pics and asked me if they are good, I got carried away and selected three of my favourites. This did it !  He sent me atleast 80-100 pics non-stop and flooded my WA which resulted in my phone hanging !  I had to sternly warn him not to do such a “crazy thing” in future. He took offence and all the pics stopped and then only a message or two would come in, that too only sometimes.

There is a friend whom I used to communicate for months. In an outburst one day, I was horrified when I came to know the thoughts and negative views about me that friend carried all that while, whereas I has been confiding in that friend about my problems, happy moments, my childhood stories and issues. I learnt my lesson that chats should be brief and to the point.

Then there is a friend (old retired colleague actually) who sends me only huge sized videos which I have normally no inclination to watch unless it is a movie song, which only encourages me to download it and watch it. So usually I quietly delete them without making an issue about it.

Another friend posts lovely pics of her two-year baby boy as her DP’s and Status Updates, which are a treat to watch and I praise the pics. She acknowledges them and is happy about the praises.

A funny incident happened once when a matrimonial prospect sent her biodata and photo on WA. I was surprised since I am used to utilizing email for this purpose. The girl also insisted that I too send my details and photo on WA only. I did so and we communicated for a week on WA and I sent her good morning card or two. Then we met one evening and there I casually mentioned about FB and WA. I was shocked when she said that she uses neither of the two and she does not have internet on her phone !  When I mentioned that I was messaging her on WA for a week, she said that it is her Mom’s number and she is the one who uses WA in fact. I was totally foxed, since I did not even know whether I was chatting with the girl or her Mom all those days. Hahaha ! Anyway, I never messaged her on that number again and the matrimonial thing too did not proceed for various reasons.

In general, WA is a good way of keeping in touch with a friend who is in any part of the country or the world. It is easy to use and has a voice and video facility too. You can often write things by messaging which may be difficult to say in person. Sometimes, it mends ties just by a funny emoticon or a joke.

All in all, WA is a social media which should be used carefully and in moderation else it can be a pain. Messages can be prone to misinterpretation in comparison to face-to-face interaction and talking on phone, which is any day preferable. It is a time waster and robs you of the time you could use for better things like reading and watching movies. It can be annoying sometimes when you receive constant messages when you are busy with something. People expect replies immediately on seeing the ‘blue’ tick and do not understand that the other person could be busy at that time. Also, when I am chatting with a friend, another would see me online and start messaging which could be highly irritating when I am in the midst of a serious discussion.

All in all, always use any social media in moderation and that is best for you !