Ahh WhatsApp. Beautiful technological invention or destroying relationships since 2009?
As with any new mode of communication, WhatsApp is like a yoyo. It definitely has its ups and downs! (Haha! Sorry) But first lets back track to 2009 where it all began…
Whats it all about?
I remember when I first got WhatsApp and it seemed like an ingenious idea! I mean why didn’t I think of this? It’s a no brainer. Being able to instantly send messages, images and video footage across all smart phones FOR FREE (so to speak) through the internet? Damn I could have been so rich that I would have had no need to write this blog whatsoever, I mean I could have just paid someone or something! Because yes, WhatsApp is currently worth more than a staggering $19 billion dollars after being bought by Facebook. Not to mention its users surpassing the 700 million mark! (Unfortunately still less than the amount of views that Justin Bieber’s music video ‘Baby’ has on YouTube-which is more than a billion…gulp).
But now we’ve got the facts out of the way I want to dig into the nitty gritty. I’m talking,
Whats ap with WhatsApp?!
So it was R.I.P to MSN instant messenger (and those cringe worthy Hotmail names, yes MissSexy007 I’m talking to you!) and gone were the endless days of chatting to friends into the early hours about the most exciting and (let’s be honest) tedious things going on in our lives. Amongst the momentary jaw dropping gossip of who saw so and so with what’s his face and OMG were his pants really that baggy?! were the more mundane fillers of ‘BRB jus goin to the toilet’ [comes back] ‘O really? How wuz it?’ because let’s face it, none of our ordinary lives are THAT fascinating 24/7 unless your last name is Kardashian! (Apparently).
We grew up and the hottest celebrities grew down (sorry Bieber), suddenly it was oh so hipster of us to forget about MSN and take a breather from all this instant messaging lark until…
Low and behold MSN was resurrected and sprung on us like T-Pain in the form of WhatsApp. Hundreds of us began to brush up on our amazing self-made nicknames but wait, hold on a second. WhatsApp uses mobile numbers instead of email addresses?! BAM suddenly our actual names were cool enough. Say hello to the new world of sophisticated messaging, or so you would think!
Despite our English being restored to normality with the help of predictive text,
WhatsApp’s biggest pitfall (like MSN) is the dreaded miscommunication it brings with it. I mean the difference between ‘okay’ and ‘K’ is just shocking. The first is a standard and polite show of understanding and the latter is a fresh serving of overthinking on a plate! OMG Is he/she annoyed? Do they not have time for me anymore?! OR maybe more simply- they’re about to mind the gap of a train or cross a road in which that ‘okay’ could have been the difference between life and death? (Woah, that was intense!)
Maybe that’s more human nature than a technical fault but for god’s sake WhatsApp! Those dreaded two blue ticks may have just added a 100th problem to Jay-Z’s 99 because they are punch in the face! Our mostly innocent delayed replies scream ‘I can’t be arsed to reply to you yet’…of course that’s not true, I meant to reply…honest! 😉 Those ticks put the instant in instant messaging, making non instant replies a felony!
Okay, okay, (not K god no!) minus these human blunders WhatsApp deserves credit for making our lives so much more easier and safer for that matter! I mean we can dwell on the beautiful past of writing letters by hand, a task which would minus those blunders since you are given time to think before you write, but being able to instantly message someone if you are in danger is vital.
On a lighter note it’s a hell of a lot faster to instantly ask someone out than delivering a letter that’s for sure! WhatsApp groups are also an excellent way of communicating amongst our peers and colleagues (strictly business of course, no crude memes to be seen here). Also more excellent in fulfilling our banter needs 🙂
And so WhatsApp, you are amazing but please reply to this as soon as you receive because I can’t bear to see those blue ticks…
Stay classy 😉