Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Last seen at...

It's a lazy afternoon, after a long time. I lie down, relaxing while watching TV. And then, it happened. I had simply forgotten, how I was supposed to react, when it used to happen. It was an SMS - not just any random promotional SMS, an SMS from an actual friend! I open the SMS, only to see the following message - "Hey, join me on hike! The only Indian messaging app! It lets you show your 'Last Seen' only to select friends! Download - http://SomeLinkThatI'mNotGoingToPromote.in"

Yes, the "Patriotic Indian" inside me had awakened. But the "MBA - Marketing" student inside me had awakened a tad bit more. And my attention went to the differentiation - "Last Seen" only to select friends! Ok, the marketing funda stops here. I'd rather draw your attention to why this differentiation could be created. Why, this Last Seen is so damn significant!

A person sends across some message through whatsapp, or some app that is a shameless copy of the same. And then, there are two timers, waiting to kick into action - smaller one, when the second tick-mark appears indicating that the message has been delivered, and second larger one, as soon as the "Last Seen Time" is greater than "Message sent Time". These timers are as good as recoiling triggers - The more they recoil with time, harder they'll propel the weaponry.

Today, we do not have time to stop at anything. We want everything quick, and waiting for something without cribbing is more obsolete than the unchanged "Local-Train-First-Class-So-Called-Cushion-Seats". And thus, as soon as our message is delivered, and we see that the receiver has opened his messaging app after that, we assume that the person would have absolutely nothing more important than to read the message sent. And thus, we start fuming as the time passes by without getting a reply. Perhaps the person is busy in a meeting, and could only see critical pings? Perhaps, the person had to followup on another important ping? Perhaps, the person gets so many pings (girls - pay attention. Yes, I'm stereotyping. :p) that they simply lose track. Or perhaps, the person doesn't know what to reply?

The reasons could be many. And yet, today this "Last Seen" has been so critical that friendships have been broken, relationships have been broken, Judgments have been made, Ego Games have been played, over this otherwise such simple feature. "How could you not reply?" "No, don't even think about saying you were busy. You were online the whole time, but you couldn't reply!" "No, you don't even care to reply. You keep talking to someone else. You must be bitching about me, eh!" "Now wait and watch, how I don't reply!" And the hilarious list goes on and on. Yes, there are times when it is justified, and we actually catch the other person ignoring or caring less. But - well, the entire above paragraphs were about this one big "But" (I had to check spelling again - some letters do unintentionally get repeated while typing.)

While I conclude this post, I'll just extrapolate it, and probably leave you with some thoughts - The words "Last Seen", are ironic, aren't they? The super convenience of this extra-ordinary category of apps have probably hampered our interpersonal relations. We no longer need to meet, to talk, to discuss, or even enjoy the occasional silent company. We are always reachable, and hence no attempts are made to actually reach out to us. We don't probably remember, when was this person actually "Last Seen" by me - all that remains to be seen, is the virtual "Last Seen".

Hope to see you soon, on this space. :)

2 comments:

  1. Well said Omi...reflects the changing lifestyle and the attitude of generation of the Great WhatsApp era.

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  2. Well written buddy...now plz reply to my ping as i can see ur last seen time > msg sent ;)

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