The rapid death of a chat: in person and in groups.
WhatsApp’s newest feature of a collection of pre-decided standard emojis (possibly decided based on a survey of the most used emojis - a highly data-driven output):
thumbs-up, praying symbol, heart, surprise, cwl (crying with laughter) and a sad face with a tear drop. Well, this is how it started with, and then Whatsapp decided to add the rest of the emoji library in say 2 weeks, very magnanimous with emoji options hahah!
What used to be a chat that’s quoted and replied to, has been truncated to a mere set of emojis that Meta decided to introduce as a recent feature.
Instagram has this feature as well, however there somehow seems more personalisation to it. At least, there is a notification on the inside of the app (in-app notification?), showing how someone reacted to a certain message of yours.
WhatsApp does tell you if you received an emoji response to what you shared with so much fervour (lol), however, it gets muddled with the many notifications on your phone, that when you open the app, you don’t have something in-app to filter out and show you what emoji you got. Hahaha.
The time spent in writing actual responses seems to be rationed, even if someone truly had a lot to say or comment on a post or a picture. New features are supposed to tighten ties and not sever, aren’t they? After all, with every process improvement you add, you’re expected to gain efficiency and time. In the work world, you add more work to this newly gained “pocket of time,” that was hiding somewhere behind the clock, and you suddenly feel as though someone gave you an extra couple hours in a day, as a bonus for being smart and efficient! Congratulations, you’re rewarded with more work!! Haha
Ok and in the WhatsApp world, it’s your personal space after all. What would otherwise be a well-thought of, time-spent written message, is now just a double tap with some emoji that sticks out. Poof! You’re done ‘replying’ to someone, at least, so you think. Like really? Since we’re talking personal time here, you can do anything you want with this newly gained time, by not actually bothering to reply.
What does this activity give back to you? Mindless scrolling and that’s it. The internet and its messaging offsprings are sure great inventions to stay connected with our near and dear ones. There are those genuine people, who actually take the time out, EVERY TIME, and reply to messages, and also use the new feature to the conversation’s advantage and fortify a messaging relationship. That’s if they wanted to.
For that matter, anything can be used either to make or break. The choice is ours. But that’s where the challenge is - you throw the feature out there and expect people to do what they want with it, however we’re just not too very adept at using good discretion. Features will need to be forced on us to be more responsive perhaps. Truly there would be no such thing though, for it boils down to what you’re habituated to. Simply put, if you wanted, you could.
On the other hand, Everyone is busy and wants to get back to some mindless scrolling where there is no response required. You’re only a spectator after all.
Thus died the chat, a rather rapid death?
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