Can we talk? Try saying ‘thank you’ in person or even through a phone call and you would immediately know the charge it gives you.

just had a nice cup of coffee with a colleague and the nicer bit is not the coffee but the exchange of energy between two highly charged individuals.

I am not exactly disheartened that the Digital News Report 2017 found that Malaysians are the world’s largest users of WhatsApp at 51%. The positive flip side to this shows that we are progressing.

The report also found that Facebook and YouTube are also popular with Malaysians, with 58% and 26% of users respectively, and WeChat and Instagram, with 13%.

Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak noting these, said that the report also mentioned Malaysians as getting 86% of their news feed from social media, 45% from publications, 54% from television and 15% from radio.

According to him, a study made by another organisation, TNS Global similarly found Malaysians as being the largest group of WhatsApp users, at 77%, and Facebook Messenger, at 41%.

According to him, WhatsApp was the main choice for consumers because of its many advantages such as simplicity and speed in communication and information sharing, and effective interfaces within an organisation as every instruction or alert could be sent without time restriction, and saved cost.

We have been howling on this topic many times over in various platforms but the truth is this isn’t going away. As I am writing my attention trails off in the direction of the beep that comes from my phone. I am connected heavily on various chat groups for work and otherwise too.

Many of you might share the fear that you might be left out of the buzz if you are not connected in the group chats. May be true but let us make a general assessment. How many of the messages you read in a day are really relevant and beneficial to you?

To me, may be 10%. Logically then, if I am spending even 1/3 of my waking hours scrolling for messages that would make me more updated, informed, knowledgeable and so on and so forth, isn’t that a colossal waste of time with little returns on investment?

My point is, the benefit of going digital is definitely obvious and does not warrant a debate but why abandon the beauty of connecting with people using the senses God has given us?

As more people circumvent the opportunity for face-to-face communication by using technology, those of us who choose to be different and capitalise on what is not in vogue today will stand out in the crowd professionally and at the personal level.

Today it is only common that a “Thank