[Eddy]

I don't mind WhatsApp and the groups at all. All of them are on mute and I check them at my convenience.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by DCEite

"Water insect is here in India, beware of the water you drink".

I'm eagerly awaiting a third-party app/hack to remove or hide this new status thing.

[alpha1]

My take on Whatsapp is that one really compelling reason for success is to form/modify multiple closed groups for gossip. This quite simply copies the real life.

Humans have this really hard-to-fight desire to connect and gossip, and spreading rumors is one of the outcomes. Whatsapp was one of the earliest easy to use platform that allowed this.

[Sankar]

Haha deleted whatscrap account and couldn't be happier!
Wastage of mind space.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Sankar

Haha deleted whatscrap account and couldn't be happier!
Wastage of mind space.

This is not an option for many, since key customers insist on using whatsapp for all project updates and notifications.

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by Samurai

This is not an option for many, since key customers insist on using whatsapp for all project updates and notifications.

For corporate or business purpose slack is a better app. I used to have that for a while. Works on Android, IOS and Windows.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Slack
Some companies including my ex have an inhouse chat app and official chats were supposed to be over it, yes before that it was watscrap.

[Santoshbhat]

Originally Posted by Sankar

For corporate or business purpose slack is a better app. I used to have that for a while. Works on Android, IOS and Windows.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Slack
Some companies including my ex have an inhouse chat app and official chats were supposed to be over it, yes before that it was watscrap.

Maybe in tech and other high level businesses with tech savvy users, but at the ground level whatsapp is much easier as every body these days has it on their phones. In my business it has at times eliminated the need to send engineers 100s of kms to attend complaints. Customers can send pictures and videos over whatsapp and the visuals make it very easy to solve complaints suggest product variants etc...

Big boon in that sense, but at times I feel it can be very dangerous when rumours, hate messages and polarizing messages start floating around. Some elderly folk think Whatsapp is the officail broadcast partner of the government. They are like "it has to be true, it came on whatsapp!!"

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by alpha1

... Whatsapp was one of the earliest easy to use platform that allowed this.

Ahem... USENET. Beats Whatsapp by about thirty years!

Note that I bolded "earliest," not "easiest." Todays whatsapping teens probably wouldn't find it easy at all, but, back in the day, anyone who even had access to it would have done.

(grammar Nazi note: yes, this post suffers from a bad attack of verbed nouns)

[aaggoswami]

In my view, WhatsApp has quite a few positive impacts which outweigh the negatives.

Positives are : No need to worry about SMS charges. For calls, I still prefer regular calls than WhatsApp ones. But the spectrum of connectivity has expanded due to Whatsapp. Be it instant information exchange or any news, WhatsApp makes it easier for the information/news/data to reach faster and in a very convenient way.

During festivals, the charges over SMS would apply and any free scheme/associated plan would be disabled. Now that all is gone.
The advantages are many. However, what hits back is how we utilize the platform.

Lots and lots of messages. Its a daily chore to read those messages. Now, I dont read each and every message, its just not possible. Next the amount of data via images, GIF and Video. Gosh! I have to clean up my Samsung J3 8 GB mobile on every alternate day. Absorbing such huge amount of data on daily basis is a burden as not each and every media is a useful one. There are some useful media files and messages, and that is strength of WhatsApp.

Just in case its used carefully, its a very powerful tool.

Impact on life (Examples):
Morning Tea is shared with WhatsApp. Good Morning and all the stuff.
In case have to meet somebody, personal meeting or professional, just message the other person/s after reaching destination, save on call/message. Just a missed called on WhatsApp is enough.
Planning for a common even like Wedding :Just create a group and others can drop in message at their convenience. Easier to plan, no need for multiple calls, etc.
When getting bored, just glance through WhatsApp.
People sitting in front of each other with their heads buried in mobile. Irritating.
Excess data scanning, eats up on valuable time.
Dont know about others, but if I dont get net connectivity for sometime, I am furious. Not sure if its addiction to Internet or not, but WhatsApp did play a role of catalyst towards that feeling. Now, daily I deliberately keep internet off during evenings. Very limited access.
The best part : Connectivity with those sitting across oceans. Forget calls, the convenience of just messaging is a huge positive in my view.

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by Santoshbhat

In my business it has at times eliminated the need to send engineers 100s of kms to attend complaints. Customers can send pictures and videos over whatsapp and the visuals make it very easy to solve complaints suggest product variants etc...

So true. Sometimes a picture or a video of the problem is all thats needed to suggest a solution or even remotely solve the problem. Saves time, effort and money. The reach of watsap is such that everybody is supposed to have it by default. Business is being conducted over it.

Just a thought:
When i became a teambhp member there was no facebook, but orkut. Watsapp and such phone based messaging service were unheard of, it was either SMS or voice call. MMS didn't work for me. Damn even the phones were dinosaurs compared to what we have now apart from a few highend phones with a VGA camera (i had one, which was nokias first camera phone which i sold to a tbhp member during that era to fund my motorcycle mods ) Tbhp still stands growing strong year after year

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Loss of Erudition: In my 12 years on Team-BHP, I have seen lots of knowledgeable members who used to make high quality contribution, via long articles, engage in long technical debates, that can be looked up even now. Many of them are now exclusively on whatsapp or FB, reposting jokes and reacting to others. Fb/whatsapp are not designed for sharing knowledge that can be looked up later. These are platforms where the attention span is really short. Also, in these platforms, 99% people are content consumers and only 1% are content creators. This is a great loss in my opinion.

Ditto. Well said.

Originally Posted by arunphilip

Social media tools like WhatsApp can end up behaving like a drug, when abused - the craving for a regular fix (check), withdrawal symptoms when denied it, impact on (mental) health, etc.

Very right, they are rather addictive and reduce you to spending time on the lowest common denominator!

Personally I took a conscious call to not register on Facebook or Whats App. TBHP is 100% of my social media interface. Love surfing Wikipedia though. It is amazing that we today have such a vast amount of knowledge on the internet and several of us limit our usage of the net to mainly jokes and gossip.

[Sheel]

Tired of groups & messages, one day I decided to uninstall WhatsApp. I had to re-install it the same evening as I had to send some one an x-ray [I am not a doctor, but it was critical]. Imagine doing this on any other platform.

Have few groups, all on mute save for family, school and biking group as we don't have forwards there.

But I do see people scanning their phones during a conversation. 99% of them are browsing WhatsApp / Facebook. Irritating & disrespectful.

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by Sheel

But I do see people scanning their phones during a conversation. 99% of them are browsing WhatsApp/Facebook. Irritating & disrespectful.

Yes have noticed the same. It is a bad habit.

[dhanushs]

Originally Posted by Sankar

Yes have noticed the same. It is a bad habit.

Its a way of not sitting simply in a table. And diverting attention.Human Nature. Earlier, before WhatsApp, it was just the phone. Not saying its good though.

Also, WhatsApp isn't necessarily bad. Its really useful multimedia messaging service - available with most out there - Thats important. I had Telegram, Signal etc.. but, switched back to WhatsApp, only because of its popularity, and hence usefulness.

Well, as long you are able to keep it in the lines its OK, but, if you are not, then it becomes whatscrap.

As for me, I keep all groups in mute. Only a PM gives me an alert. Groups are checked as and when possible.

[Turbo_Charger]

I find whatsapp & other messaging apps useful but as with every technology, people are misusing it. I find whatsapp to be extremely useful in contacting, chatting & speaking with long lost college friends, that too for free. What I hate is the unnecessary disturbance it creates with the barrage of Good Morning, Good Evening & Good Night messages. Icing on the cake is the repeat forwards sent by same or different senders in same or different groups. Most of the content is either copied from facebook or twitter. Then there are the relatives & cousins who won't take no for an answer or will mind if you don't respond to their "quizzes, questions" or other silly posts. Whatsapp has increased this problem with the introduction of Read Receipts, which allows the sender to see when you read their post & didn't respond to them.

The Good Morning problem is the most chronic one. Some groups which are of social nature like R. W. A. or a trade body too have this problem. Despite telling people not to do it, they simply can't resist. As a result the level of discourse in these groups in particular & in public life in general has really come down. These messengers have also erased the generation gap between seniors & juniors. I know some senior relatives who send messages which are generally sent by close friends or people of same age group. We should first think what message, picture or video are we sending to whom before hitting the send button and being embarrassed later.

My personal experience is as follows. I have been on whatsapp but was not a part of any group. Then 1 fine day, a cousin's son (studying in school) created a group of his known relatives (around 8) and all was going well. Then suddenly a different relative (around 50) took control of that group & began adding all the relatives that he knew (but no one else in the group had relations with) so from a cozy little group where everyone knew everyone, the group has become a personal feifdom of the new admin. As a result most of the original members have stopped interacting. Since whatsapp has this peculiar habit of persistently restarting itself, I have installed a firewall on my phone and cut off whatsapp's internet access. When I need to send someone a message I grant it internet access & then cut it again. This way most messages are delivered late to me & no one bothers me on whatsapp. There are some children too part of this group & sometimes some NSFW messages have also been sent followed by apologies.

PS : It's not that whatsapp doesn't have positive benefits. Some of my relatives who can't hear or speak have been using whatsapp which is a boon for them.