Self-regulating the enabler
Respite and logic should not sound outdated in WhatsApp kingdom
WHATSAPP is an enabler of the noblest kind. “Why didn’t you answer my call?” queried a gentleman from London. A “Missed Voice Call” flashed on your screen. Making voice calls on the paid cellular line has added prestige. WhatsApp voice calls (free) is a leveller, but with the occasional blips. Written chatters are expressed with less inhibition as opposed to face-to-face conversations. With time to pause, and edit, WhatsApp texts are wonderful. No? Or as lamented by Siti Mariam Mohammad Iliyas in a “Letter to the Editor” with the heading “Common sense is dying in WhatsApp chat groups” (NST, May 13).
Malaysians spend considerable time on WhatsApp. Campaigners, propagandists and inciters may or may not have mined this zone to stir emotions. Racialist tones have been discerned, disconcertingly so. Strategists target non-readers who mistakenly equate time spent on their gadgets as “reading and learning”. The authenticity of clips, dates and locations are never declared, yet such vagueness does not douse the emotions.
Too much time expended on WhatsApp? Clean, honest, highquality work, in all fairness, does get done on the messaging app. This piece was written on WhatsApp. Pictures that appear on the neighbouring pages are debated upon, on occasions, on WhatsApp. What’s not to like about this god’s gift to prose and pleasantries then? Three shockers come to mind. One, those videos built to sour relations and spike sentiments featured in a previous passage. Two, vitriol in chat groups and, three, excessive and exaggerated online courtesies. This relates to an innate desire to share content. Useful content are largely confined to religion. Original content is a bonus. No content thinking seems to have developed although some WhatsApp groups constantly remind participants to eschew politics. Curious this. Journalism churns out large quantities of quality content. Wages are paid to content developers and fact checkers and inquisitors. Such “inconvenience” rarely gets aired on WhatsApp groups. WhatsApp content, though, rates high on the zany score.
This newfound space is a dream for aspiring demagogues. Angry words typed furiously, as the speaker works himself into a trance. There exists enough court jesters and tukang
cucuk (instigators) to rile up the vociferous speaker. The nastiness we encounter on WhatsApp chats is a continuation of bad habits we should have buried in the last century.
This Leader is not about to conclude on an unsavoury tone. Chat groups of supporters of English Premier League teams, for example, nurture strong bonding. Often, insightful notes are required to lift moods. Fittingly, this Leader extols the virtues and vices of WhatsApp chat to get you, Dear Reader, to momentarily go off gadget. We deserve a break. Smell the roses. Talk to people dear to you. Yes, read something substantive on print. Live.
The nastiness we encounter on WhatsApp chats is a continuation of bad habits we should have buried in the last century.