STICKERS HAVE STUDENTS HOOKED!
Were you under the impression that memes are the ‘in thing’ for youngsters to communicate with each other? If so, watch out for the barrage of stickers coming your way! Having replaced memes and GIFs, stickers have become the new online missiles for Delhi University students to launch, be it during a classroom discussion or a chit chat session. But what’s startling is that when stickers are sent, they’re not in response to just one comment or question, they come as a flood!
“Sharing memes with each other is so last year. All my friends are now sharing stickers, and have been spamming all our chats,” says Aatika Choudhary, a student of Vivekananda College, who feels that sticker spamming is, in a way, a stress buster at a time when assignments are piling up and the possibility of offline exams is distressing youngsters.
Characters of actors Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal (from the Hera Pheri series) and Anushka Sharma (from Sui Dhaaga; 2018) have also found presence, instantly inducing laughs. “Memes take up much more space and ages to download if you have a poor connection, and emojis are not enough to express our emotions in the age of complete online chatting. Somewhere between emojis and memes, stickers have assumed much more importance. From using a dialogue from Mirzapur to a reference from F.R.I.E.N.D.S, stickers never fail to express and impress!” feels Pranshu Nain, a student of Ramjas College.
Many students are even hoarding stickers and flaunting their collections on group chats. “I have around 4,000 stickers saved,” says Yukti Aggarwal, a student of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, adding, “Spamming chats with stickers is a kind of stress buster, as I can link my day-to-day experiences, moods and emotions with these stickers. Earlier, I used to share stickers in my WhatsApp class groups to express, but now, I’m the one who initiates a sticker war!”
But why do college goers feel the urge to engage in mindless, non-stop sticker spamming? “Well, it makes us laugh, relax and helps distract our mind from other things. When someone makes a sarcastic remark or says something stupid, the best response is to send a hilarious sticker. It’s less time-consuming and to the point. I think it’s totally a Gen-Z thing,” says Sarthak Mishra, a student of Ramjas College.
STICKER SPAMMING SEEMS TO HAVE BECOME THE ‘NEW NORMAL’ FOR GEN-Z WHILE CHATTING