Goodbye, WhatsApp!
By: Tapan Avasthi
Tags: Lifestyle, WhatsApp, Communication, Self, Privacy

Honeymoon Ends, Reality Reeks

As the honeymoon got over, real-life resumed its course. We weren’t the honeymoon-cattle anymore, and gossip wasn’t the grass for us. Now, We craved nutrient-rich food. Unfortunately, we still were glutted with the same old grass.

In this new life, I seemed to be available for anything and everything. My privacy and freedom were brutally taken for granted, not once, not twice, but for each minute that I spent with WhatsApp.

Some random-person would come home every now and then with a good-morning greeting. Though I tried to appreciate the underlying intention, however, WhatsApp was smart enough to tell me that the same person has likely gone to 255 other homes with the same personal good-morning greeting. So, I could never appreciate this, except when somebody visited my house with a genuine greeting.

Well, greetings were at least well-intentioned. But, it was worse when intruders would barge in my house, just because they had access to my phone number. And, then there were a few wannabe life-coaches, trying to dictate how I should spend my day by forwarding advice that they received from someone who received it from someone else and so on.

But, none of these beat the stalkers hiding outside my house. Always ready to initiate unsolicited gossip, the minute, they notice that I’ve come out for a walk with WhatsApp.

Amongst the stalkers was a kind, who enjoyed throwing balls of obligation. They’d stick a note to my door, and keep an eye on it. Once they know that I’ve read the note, then no matter what I’m doing or wherever I’m, they always sought an immediate response.

More than anything else, misalignments concerning the value that people see out of the WhatsApp conversations, started posing a risk of jeopardizing real relationships in my life. On the one hand, I was mostly looking for meaningful discussions and content. But, on the other hand, some people were only invested in WhatsApp for silly conversations limited to memes or fake news that they thought was true.

Because of such misalignments, I’d often accidentally spoil their game of laughs by overly criticizing something. To make it worse, I was being a grammar cum copyrights nazi who’d pinch people with a needle when they write loosely or share something without giving due credit to its original creator. Well, I was conjuring conflicts in life out of thin air, don’t you see?

Just like, we’re not comfortable lending money to the careless ones, even if he/she is a decent friend. In the same way, even though it might be easy and convenient for someone to ask for a favor through WhatsApp without matching an eye with the person, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a right to claim.

I married WhatsApp to be part of a community that’d resonate with my motive to connect meaningfully, for a purpose. However, at times, some people would never hesitate an inch to abuse the convenient reach of my doors with little or no empathy towards the value of my time.

As long as there’s this conversation pipe, water would find a way to reach me from anywhere or everywhere. Since I can’t control whether water is coming from a waste pipe or a filtered one, it’s getting harder for me to drink these conversations.

At the moment, WhatsApp just feels like a prick in my paw. If I’ve to walk without pain, I must get rid of it. As simple as that.