The remarkable app has made it possible for a close-knit group of friends spread across continents to keep in constant touch.
Since everyone is on the go and possesses smartphones, what better way to connect than this medium? It doesn’t matter that we are on different time zones. Those who share similar waking hours exchange news and views while the others are fast asleep. Then the latter group wakes up to a plethora of messages, videos and photographs and they’re back in the loop.
One among this group joined very late, simply because she was of the firm opinion that she wouldn’t be able to cope with the influx of updates and the pressing need to reply. It took much persuasion and emotional blackmail before she jumped on the bandwagon. And now she’s on a roll.
This is so much more convenient than keeping in touch via phone calls or even Skype. That’s because you have to synchronise timing and availability. Next you find yourself, late at night, staring at a face fresh as a daisy while you’re bleary-eyed, in your most unprepossessing night wear and sans make up. Being on equal footing is important because while the person who is ready to nod off wants to keep the conversation short, unfortunately, the daytime person is fully geared for a tell-all session. Eventually, as the responses from the night person become increasingly monosyllabic, the other conversationalist realises that it is way past the friend’s bedtime. So, the conversation peters out, leaving the sleepyhead relieved and the other with a sense of being shortchanged.
‘Tomorrow is another day’
As for emails, by the time you get down to chronicle all the details of your last holiday or the hectic work schedule that has prevented you from keeping in touch, there is a sense of being overwhelmed. So, you quietly shut down your laptop and like Scarlett O’Hara of Gone With The Wind fame (the movie is celebrating 75 years), and say, ‘Tomorrow is another day’.
Needless to say, that day never comes and the catching up becomes an even more daunting task as time goes by.
I can understand what drives some to email an annual report to friends and family to let them in on the year’s happenings. It’s a one-time effort but, once accomplished, you can forget about it for another 365 days.
Another WhatsApp group comprises siblings and a set of nieces and nephews residing in one country. The reason why others are not included is because this particular set of young ones were tired of being asked so many questions and having to deal with so many individual queries. The siblings group has seen some remarkable input in the form of one and two-word phrases from a reclusive brother in Botswana, a man of few words. This response is so unusual, but once the other sisters and brothers are exchanging tidbits of information or jokes, each one trying very hard to be wittier than the other or outdo one another, there is no holding him back. The competitive spirit honed in childhood runs deep in us all and he, too, feels he must have the last word. Sometimes, if we’re lucky, there is more than one word.
That’s when we realise that this medium has us all on the same page, for once. No more accusations or blame games on who owes whom a phone call or email. When the siblings are in full flow, the nieces and nephews sit back and enjoy the conversational roller-coaster ride.
They might try interspersing the multi-dialogue with their own witticisms, but they soon realise they are out of their league. They are but minnows in this school of adult fish and trying to get the last word in is like swimming against the tide.
