Unless you have been living under a rock for the last two years or are of the rare populace who has managed to resolutely stay away from the charms of smartphones, chances are you use WhatsApp. If not, I envy you. When it was launched, I was excited to have this cool IM app that could be used to send texts and pictures over Wifi. The audio messages and audio calls that came later were pretty cool too. Oh and the emojis were fun…! Over time, the WhatsApp Utility was replaced by The WhatsApp Nuisance!
I joined numerous groups over the last two years. School group, ex-company group, college group, ex-team group, My daughter’s school group, a family group, my condo’s ladies group, a mommy support group and a few blogger’s groups. The sheer amount of activity on all these combined has begun to give me a splitting headache. I have now realised that I can not be active on all these groups. Just not possible. I have a few favourites (you know who you are!) and am reasonably active there. In the rest, I know there have been occasional complaints of inactivity but honestly, I can’t keep up. So I have quit trying. Sometimes, one joins groups hoping to connect with people and that falls flat on your face if you are not on the same wavelength as the rest of them. Such groups only add to your battery and data pack consumption. I keep thinking about leaving them but am too polite to leave them I suppose 😛
The other thing was the blue ticks. So it was a good feature working like an email read receipt. You know your message has been read. Great. The nuisance begins when people expect instantaneous replies. “You read my messages and did not respond for 3 hours!!” or “My messages were delivered why did you not read them?” Hello people, we have things to do. We don’t sit around staring at WhatsApp screens the whole day ready to send a response as soon as that annoying ping comes about. I have found it nearly impossible to convince people and hence have made myself scarce on WhatsApp. I use it for personal messages and a very few group interactions. Do you use WhatsApp? Do you find it a Nuisance too sometimes?
Pingback: Self Love, Not Self Critique #BlogchatterHealthWatch
Hi Ankita….
Truly a blog needed at this time… these days people are seriously creating nuisance through whatsapp… it has become a way of making others jealous too. Posting so many photos… my God. With Smart phones, clicking pics an easy job but hold on guys who’s interested on all the photos that are clicked… still they are shared…
Whatsapp! *runs* I am a little scared of this medium. Yes it is quite useful but still I believe nuisance is tipping the balance towards cons a lot 😀
I have a love-hate relationship with it!
I am part of 2 family groups and 2 friend groups. And though I love the connect, I at times hate the forwards. But still it is manageable. And being so far away from my parents, I actually like WA.
Whatsapp is something which is difficult to control due to the continuous notifications. But I have left groups which were meaningless and forget about being rude. Whoever wants to connect with you, has the phone number and can send a direct Whatsap message. or can just call, isnt it? The good morning messages and jokes do a get a bit tiresome after some time.
I have Whatsapp and is there in 4 groups – one family, one school, one college and another a very close friends group. Since it is only 4 I am okay and I can manage. Plus night time I turn the wifi and data off on my phone. Here my husband’s colleagues’ wives have a WhatsApp group and no way I am gonna join there. If in case someone adds me I will leave the group, mindless gossiping is not for me. Today a mom from my kid’s class asked my number and asked me if I am in one of the buddy groups in WhatsApp for the area. No, thank you. I can’t have so many random people on my phone nor do I wish to end up stranger’s phones. I value my privacy. Very timely post, Ankita. 🙂
I feel the same all the time .I am in almost 15 groups and in some groups whenever I enable my mobile data ,I see 600-700 messages. Crazy..
This is one app that I am so not fond of. It erases the line between professional and personal time. 🙁 Very intrusive and very irritating. I know of bosses who track you using this app.
Never heard of it, never used it. So, doesn’t bother me. 😉
I have managed to avoid it thus far. I’ve actually only had a few friends ask me to join. And they all understood when I said no. I can barely keep up with normal text messages. Email lists, sure, but text message lists would be too hard.
I don’t like WA at all rap the free flowing pictures n videos that keep clogging my phone thanks to the various chatty groups…. Arrggghhh
Totally agree. It’s a nuisance. The problem is that team is also on it so how do I quit? 🙁 It’s like deal with it however much you dislike it. Initially it was fun but now it irritates.
Ankita, your post tells me there are more people like me and that’s reassuring! I stayed away from whatsapp until a few months back when a school reunion group forced me to join them and couple of months down the line I have realised that it isn’t just meant for people like me. I enjoy a meaningful conversation (essentially one-on-one) and not mindless banter that continues through the day until night. I find people addicted to whatsapp which means they are there 24/7 hooked onto each other’s every move, which is again very intrusive! It drains my battery and slows down my phone which can be very irritating. I’ve decided to remove myself from all the irrelevant groups and have now kept myself available only for a small, select number of people who use it sparingly and when they really need to, which makes sense.
I have stopped making an attempt to be active in dozens of whatsapp group I am in. If I need to ask something I just ping them directly. It can be quite exhausting at times… but a good time pass when bored 🙂
Oh yes this can be a pain in the butt especially when it pings at night. But it really is a great way for me to keep in touch with my own daughters who refuse to answer their phones!
I can imagine… I do that to my mum too!!