Humans of WhattsApp

WhattsApp groups can be the most annoying yet the most sociable creations of the 21st century. They are created in abandon and without notice, one will more often than not find themselves in at least one of these groups. Some are annoying while others keep us entertained for days and can be the highlight of an otherwise boring day. Want to visit someone’s baby, start a whattsapp group, point is there are whattsapp group for literally anything and everything under the sun. But with all these groups comes different individuals. The most noticeable for me are four categories namely; The show off, The silent viewers, The attention seekers and The voice of reason. Let me break it down:

The show off

These are the people who often show off everything they own. From their cars, to their children, to their tiny furry dogs. These people will make sure to update the group on everything going on in their luxurious lives from vacations in Paris, to the dog having it’s weekly mani – pedi session in some upper class doggy salon which some of us didn’t even know existed and are in dire need of a pedi ourselves, so we swallow the huge lump on our throat and stick to our lanes. Mind you they will show off in the most subtle of ways, you know, trying to look humble while bragging, something like, ‘Guys sorry, won’t be online for the better part of next week since the ‘fam’ and I will be going for a small vacation in the Maldives.’ You can feel the eyes rolling in the group with some wishing them all the best but most will just ignore the comment, sigh and Google where the Maldives are. And Google decides to splash you with more information than you asked for including beautiful scenic beaches and quotes such as ‘Most expensive places to visit on earth’ with The Maldives at the top five, so you yet again stick to your lane and wait for the next update from the ‘show off’ which will most probably be an update on how the vacation is going including the delicious meals and the grand hotel suite they are in….shoot me already! I kid, I kid…

But we want, No, need to see this, it’s important to see how the other half lives, it’s important to know that you too can reach such levels of success and stop swallowing lumps of none existent potatoes with envy, it’s important to learn from such people on how to get there too, how they did it. Without such people most of us would be comfortable in our cocoons believing that vacations only involve going to ‘ushago’ , No! Not while the Maldives are waiting to be visited. These people as annoying as they seem to be give us hope to grow, to be better and to strive for more and for that I’m thankful for the show offs in whattsapp groups! Keep showing us what we are missing and we can either decide to work hard and join you or swallow that huge potato wishing to be you, the choice is yours , I choose the former!

The silent viewers

Going by the title I’m sure it’s self explanatory and all of us can name quite a few of these people. These are the people who never comment, update, respond, leave or participate in anything in the group. They seat back with everyone assuming they left the group only for the admin to randomly mention them where they will jot out one sentence or a thumbs up then go back to being a fly on the wall. I have been a silent viewer in some instances but it’s usually involuntarily since I get to read the more than 300 accumulated msgs and can’t comment since the conversation has moved on and your comment would be stale. So you keep your peace and throw in the random meme to show your presence.

But in some smaller groups where messages don’t accumulate that much, these silent followers tend to be annoying. They will approach you in person and ask why decisions were made while he/she had another opinion, this is where you feel like pulling your own hair, you wonder why not raise it in the group? Why complain when decisions have been made which you clearly read and not give in your two cents only to have a different opinion later? And so to keep the peace you bring up their concern hoping they’ll back you up in the group only to still remain quiet….grrrrr! So you end up looking like a noise maker and can’t do anything about it. Maybe they are shy, maybe they prefer not to disagree with the group and so keep quiet or perhaps they just don’t bother reading their messages which is all good. After all silence is golden and like my mother taught me, if you have nothing good to say, keep quiet!

The attention seekers

They will try and turn attention to themselves at any given opportunity. The group might be discussing one thing only for this person to bring up a totally different topic and keep insisting on it ignoring what the main topic of discussion is. Attention has to be on them in order for them to contribute to any discussion and to do this they will often try and change topics if they aren’t the one’s who raised it. If they fail to get the group’s attention, they will often tag one member of the group urging them on until the person finally responds to which the attention seeker will usually go ahead and have a completely parallel conversation to the group until he/she is finally able to steer the whole conversation to what he/she wants staring them! Then they will go ahead and lead the group back to the original conversation but this time he/she will be leading it. The dictionary calls such people narcissists, they have to always be the stars and the whole conversation has to be led by them otherwise they won’t participate.

This group of people more often than not are used to being the center of attention even in their personal lives either at work or home or it could be the opposite, they could lack attention in other aspects of life and so seek it from any other avenue. Either way attention seekers are more or less the life of the group and without them the group would be dull.

The voice of reason

Each whattsapp group has that one person who is often level headed and one word from them is enough to conclude a topic. The voice of reason is often level headed both in person and online. They never loose their cool not matter what the topic is or how heated it gets. They tackle even the most controversial topic with such finesse that even those opposing can see their point. These people are often leaders even in their real lives, they don’t say a lot but when they do, everyone notices and approves.

These people’s cool and calm demeanor usually attracts everyone in the group, they have a lot to show off but don’t, they have a lot of wisdom but often give it out in small doses careful not to upset or overlook even the most silent of group members. They engage everyone in the group and do not discriminate depending on who they get along with the most and that is why they are often looked at as the group leader. No one gives them the title but it’s known that they lead the group and incase of any disagreement in the group the are the voice of reason who give the final word.

In conclusion, there are lots of other humans in Whattsapp groups but these four categories lead the pack. We can all find ourselves in one of these people or we can learn to adjust to be one of these people. Either way the Humans of whattsapp rock!