These days I have been acting like a Black Hole as far as Whatsapp goes. I am reading what I am receiving but I am not forwarding any of it. It has been two weeks since my last forwarding and I feel blessed already. I have been a late follower of Whatsapp - compelled to use it because almost all of my friends have joined it and no one would SMS anymore. Also there is no denying the fact that it allows me to stay in touch with dear friends who have moved out of India. I remember being overjoyed (sure took me to my childhood days!) when merely 5-6 hours after sending my mobile number to a friend on LinkedIn, she pinged me on Whatsapp. She would have laughed out aloud if she had seen me grin ear-to-ear. Then the floodgates opened as friend after friend found me on Whatsapp and began sending jokes, cute pictures, funny videos. I am guilty as charged as I consumed and forwarded them in droves. But I knew that in a quiet corner of my mind a tiny voice had already started ringing the alarm bells - watch out or you will become part of the zombie group that you used to laugh at. It was only a matter of time before I decided to pay heed. It was not a question of 'if' but of 'when'.
That 'when' happened about 2 weeks back when I had kept my silenced phone away, deliberately, for an hour. When I finally dared to check it, there were 16 messages from 3 chats. I am sure in the world of Whatsapp it probably is on a scale even below minimum but for me it was nothing short of a wakeup call. I opened the chats up and calmly deleted all the videos without as much as glancing at them. I muted some groups for a year (why don't they have an option to Mute them for eternity?), exited rest of them and cleared all the jokes, images and quotes that I had planned on forwarding. I briefly toyed with the idea of requesting my friends not to send me anything henceforth except for a personal message but then decided against it. Amazingly, as if they have sensed my decision through cosmic energy or whatever it is that binds all of us together, they too have gone radio silent.
You remember that alien from 'The Independence Day' telling the US President in no uncertain terms that he means business - "Peace? No Peace". I used to feel like that earlier. Now, I really feel like chanting 'Om Shanti Om' :-)
That 'when' happened about 2 weeks back when I had kept my silenced phone away, deliberately, for an hour. When I finally dared to check it, there were 16 messages from 3 chats. I am sure in the world of Whatsapp it probably is on a scale even below minimum but for me it was nothing short of a wakeup call. I opened the chats up and calmly deleted all the videos without as much as glancing at them. I muted some groups for a year (why don't they have an option to Mute them for eternity?), exited rest of them and cleared all the jokes, images and quotes that I had planned on forwarding. I briefly toyed with the idea of requesting my friends not to send me anything henceforth except for a personal message but then decided against it. Amazingly, as if they have sensed my decision through cosmic energy or whatever it is that binds all of us together, they too have gone radio silent.
You remember that alien from 'The Independence Day' telling the US President in no uncertain terms that he means business - "Peace? No Peace". I used to feel like that earlier. Now, I really feel like chanting 'Om Shanti Om' :-)
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