Any Body Can Forward – The WhatsApp syndrome

All species show off. Among them, humans show off the most. Men and women want toshow off that they are better than others. This continuous strive for showing off led to wars, arguments and manifested itself in many other spheres including sports. One of the modern ways is to show off one’s knowledge as being better than others. It is a race of “I know better than you and faster than you”.

In the bygone days there was a huge difficulty in showing off awareness and knowledge. Unstinting research and lot of patience were needed. Eminent scholars had to pore over Talla Patras (palm leaves) and write laboriously.

Thecrying need was original content and what they created was something that no one else knew or even could fathom.

Contrast it to the modern times.Each one of us wields an ultimate weapon, the smart phone and we wielditruthlessly. The smart phone has become ‘the thing’ in our life. It is reported that many of us have to touch and feel out mobile phones many times a day to reassure ourselves that everything is fine. This led to a new disease being discoveredFOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

FOMO is that malady that makes us repeatedly check our mobiles to see, read and watch the latest happenings. We don’t want to be left behind. There is aconstant urge to be online and in-line with what is happening in the world.

And the ultimate pay off – get information that we think that no one else has and repost/forward/retweet to as many people as possible.

We don’t need tocreate content,we need not be original, and we need not do any research but at the same time appear to be very aware and knowledgeable. The most wonderful part is we don’t need to exert ourselves. Just an action – forward,relax and feel that we have done our solemn duty to spread the knowledge that willmake our friends, acquaintances and group members become more aware and informed.

We feel that we have enriched somebody else’s life and feel happy that we could forward it before somebody else could. It is a psychological warfare –‘forward before somebody else does’. It is an urge ‘I know before you’.

Social media platforms have become the favourite hunting grounds for our urge to spread this kind of ‘information and knowledge’. The most popularplatforms are Facebook, Twitter and the mother of all social media apps – WhatsApp. Luckily Twitter in India remains on the fringes of popularityandit not as popularas Facebook and WhatsApp.

The need to write original thoughts and a platform where retweets are not as popular as tweets could be the reasons for Twitter’s limited popularity.

Yes Facebook is popular but the virality of the information is the fastest on WhatsApp, the messaging application of Facebook. It is reported that WhatsAppis used by more than 16 crore Indians, a staggering 16% of the one billionworldwideWhatsApp users.

WhatsApp is fast, free, more intimate and intrusiveand runs on nearly all of India’s millions of smartphones. It’s also encrypted end-to-end, which means it is nearly impossible to track what flows through it. Every minute of our day we are bombarded with information, news, messages, images, write ups, notices,videos etc.

We spend lot of timereading, seeing and watching all this stuff. And we are hit by the urge to share that fantastic bit ofinformation with all our friends, acquaintances, family members, relatives andgroup members. In a split second that information can be forwardedto as many people as we want.

And our efforts in accomplishing this mission are a big fat zero. It is this easiness with which we are able to spread these canards is what is leading to theepidemic of hoaxes of a humongous proportion. MOST of the information that appears on WhatsApp is not factually correct.

We don’t know the original source and we simply pass along information that can do lot of damage. It is no longer just passingalong innocuous information; these hoaxes have led to confusion, panic and sometimes unfortunately even led to loss of human life.

Last year, police in many states arrested half a dozen admins of WhatsApp groups, charging them with the crime of spreading misleading information. Unlike in Facebook where the user has an option of deleting an offensive post, in WhatsApp there is no admin control over what other members post in a group.

Indian government had to suspend many social media platform including WhatsApp in Jammu and Kashmir to stop the vicious, slanderous and malicious propaganda that was being carried out by mischief mongers.

But things have changed rapidly and according to the new cyber law, group administrators are responsible for all the posts that appear in their groups. Beware - do not admit unknown members to be part of your groups. Monitor all posts. If anything is offensive or could create problems, openly denounce such posts. If you are the admin, immediately delete that person from the group.

Remember once there is an iota of doubt or suspicion, every member of that group including the admin would be under the radar and all could be questioned. So as things stand spreading information on the digital highway is a double edged weapon. It could create a feeling of importance and increased self-esteem but at the same time it could lead to ridicule.

It could even lead to serious consequences which include libel action and possible criminal prosecution too. Friends, pause for a second before you hit the forward button. It is better be safe than to be sorry!

Next week we would be discussing famous hoaxes prorogated on WhatsApp that have rocked us and continue to create havoc.