I am the first to say that courtesy is wonderful; pleasantries are a good thing to exchange. However, I have always found the forwarding and exchange of good morning WhatsApp messages to be among the most pointless of exercises. Now it seems that there are other reasons for not saying good morning via WhatsApp – other than my extreme and entirely personal aversion to them.
Good Morning! From 20 individuals in their individual capacity plus via 35 other groups that you are a part of: some are repeats and some are brand new. Some arrive at night because for some people, it is the thought, not the time zone that counts!
Sundry blooming flowers, chortling babies, beady-eyed birds, playful puppies, stuffed toys, photoshopped sunrises or a steaming cuppa... accompanied by a greeting, advice, pearls of wisdom, motivational messages arrive each morning. Some are funny, others merely pun-ny. Some don't even make any sense.
Now I personally dislike all good morning messages; for no particular reason. Mine is an unconditional, unreasonable dislike. However, there are those who dislike them because the messages arrive too early; presumably jarring them out of a peaceful slumber. Others find them ‘too cheery’ – the image above being one example of the breathless, unrealistic, relentless optimism of some of these morning messages. I sympathise deeply.
Google researchers in Silicon Valley found that too many smartphones in India were slowing down or crashing. It was found that one of three Indians who use smartphones experience problems of running out of space on their phones each day!
Many Indians who buy smartphones are using the internet for the first time. Many get real excited at the possibilities and think it’s a simply wonderful idea to inundate people with homilies each morning. The activity starts before sunrise and peaks by 8 AM.
It isn’t just people forwarding what they receive. There are those who actually make an effort to find images they (presumably) consider aesthetically pleasing, with a message sufficiently uplifting which is then sent to friends, family and even unsuspecting strangers! Over the past five years, the number of Google searches for Good Morning images has gone up tenfold!
Many people send the messages to let people know they're thinking of them. Some send them because they put into words what they feel. Clearly, there are many Good Morning message enthusiasts – including – hold your breath – our Prime Minister. He gets up at 5 AM not only for yoga but also to send off some early morning missives. And when his MPs did not respond, he was known to be quite angry! Much like the dada/kaka/fufi/nani who is upset that you neither replied to, nor acknowledged their lovely “Good Morning with Silent Prayer” message…because, you, like other sensible people, muted all notifications and disabled auto download of all media!
Obviously, there are many wounded souls out there; hounded by the incessant banality of the Good Morning outpouring. Some have suggestions like this, others lamented the ‘newly online population’ in their homes and yet others remarked about how India says Good Morning and the internet gets convulsions!
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