BUANASENI

By Johan Ishak

3 March 2022

  WHATSAPP is a widely used communication tool nowadays so much so that Telcos are facing very high risk of lost of revenues from the conventional charged phone calls or the nearly demised sms service. This digital disruption has taken the world economy to the next level where conventional models are strongly challenged exposing them to the point of obsolescence.

We have seen that the largest hotel accomodation booking service in the world like Air B'n'B now operate without owning any accomodation properties; and the largest transport companies like Grab and Uber do not own any fleet of vehicles. They embrace business networking, outsourcing and the buzz word, Gig Economy.

There are still many of us who hates the new method of communication and prefer the old ways of verbal communication via the telephone. It is believed that the new method lack human touch and destroys the beauty and integrity of literature especially when the digital natives are used to communication without any face to face interaction and the widely use of short forms such as "LOL".

In the case of the older generations who are still active in the workforce, they might just love the convenience provided by Whatsapp despite their despise of the tool. There are so many unwanted calls nowadays such as from banks offering cash advances or an insurance, unit trust or property agents. To embrace the habit of not talking verbally might just eliminate this irritation. 

Professionals who are busy in and out of back to back meetings find it very difficult to have verbal phone conversations for unplanned calls. They ignore phone numbers that do not display the names of the callers and adopted the attitude of, "If it is important enough, the caller can just whatsapp me and if it is indeed important, I might just call back. Otherwise, I won't bother". On the other hand, the thousands of year old courtesy of speech and body language will disappear from humanity. 

Texting in Whatsapp can appear to be rude or negative even when the sender doesn't mean to be so. So, occasionally you will find an old person to take the trouble to type texts the long version as if it is emulating exactly what a verbal sentence would be in a telephone call forsaking the new and young ways of short forms; and hoping the politeness and courtesy of the old ways are being portrayed in their communication. 

In my life, I seldom say "Assalamualaikum" to my father. However, since the 86 year old man has started to use Whatsapp, he sends me Assalamualaikum posters every morning without fail. Embracing the new ways as well as the good mannerism of the old ways, I find myself replying to his daily Assalamualaikum wish with the short form "wsalam". 

Employers of many companies are still from the old school of calling employees late at night. This may not be received well by the young workforce who seems to put great importance on personal space especially after working hours. A late night phone call from a boss requires an immediate reply from staff verbally. However, a late night Whatsapp from a boss allows the space for the staff to answer the next morning after strategising what to answer. The boss would also be kind enough to assume that a reply to queries the next morning is acceptable as the staff may have already gone to bes when messages are sent.

So there you go. To Whatsapp or Not to Whatsapp? What is certain is that, call me if you want but you can talk to the wall. Haha. I will only call back if you Whatsapp me at least a word or two describing the importance of the need for the conversation, if I want to. I am a busy man in and out of back to back meetings that require me to concentrate, talk in the meeting or even chair it. Boohoo!

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