If a month ago someone had harmlessly proposed the idea born out of wishful thinking about WhatsApp diversifying into other domains of social media, I would have dismissed it as one of those redundant demands of a ‘dislike’ or an ‘I don’t care’ button for Facebook. But, when the morning/afternoon/evening of a sorrowful day brought the doomed ‘WhatsApp Status Update’ icon on our screens, minds were baffled and curses were directed towards WhatsApp for this unprecedented change. We give you 4 reasons why the new status feature is being subjected to the dislike of the world!
1.Adds to the Social Media Dilemma
Snapchat pioneered the convenient trend of uploading a story for 24 hours, sending it to a certain person, and the permanent (at least we’d hope so!) removal of the said picture/video from our mobile screens. Instagram hoping to grab a bite of Snapchat’s cake went on to introduce the Insta Story feature on its platform, leaving the users in confusion concerning what to put where. With WhatsApp releasing something similar, the dilemma stands escalated.
2.Transition into Visual Portrayal
Gone are the days where the bandwidth of your state of mind would be represented by a poetic combination of words, for, the ‘Status Update’ conditions you to post a picture/video/GIF/sketch to be the prime message. The same can be captioned with a message, but the focus falls on the visuality of what is being posted. All those soulful quotes or guessing the emotional state of a person will now fade away into stories of nostalgia.
3.The Lifeline of a ‘Status’
Earlier versions of ‘WhatsApp Status’ were time-absolute. The idea of changing it because the clock said so was never a worry; people even proudly had the ‘Hey there! I am using WhatsApp’ as their status for months and years on. But this pale version of a Snapchat-like update imposes a vexing time restriction of 24 hours. If a picture or a video appeals to us, its validity shall be hexed by WhatsApp within the period of a day.
4.The Sheer Needlessness
Change is synonymous with growth and success, accepted. But, not all change is desirable and needed by society. The masses were content with the voice and video call updates WhatsApp endeavoured to provide, but to give a similar feature as is already known to us reduces its worth, and leaves us with an app we have begun to whine about!
Saumya Kalia
[email protected]
Image Credits: The Indian Express
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