USTAZ and medical advisers are plenty and active on social media platforms. If you have a smartphone, never a day passes without you getting some advice or other.
Political observers and runners have also jumped on the bandwagon by offering theories, predictions and analysis. You choose who you want to believe.
Today, we receive all sorts of inputs on our mobile phones that can help our health, or make us fearful of venturing out of our safe haven, which is our home.
There are daily reminders. I’m sure that many of us receive early morning short text messages wishing us good morning and whatnot.
Some remind us to do our morning prayers and to not forget to go for that brisk walk or jogging. Most of these messages are sent in group chats using WhatsApp.
There are a variety of group chats, ranging from family groups to colleagues and neighbourhood watch groups. I’m sure many of us are grouped into five or six of them.
I regard a group chat as important and useful. Let me give you an example. In the last month, I had three deaths in the extended family. Each death was notified to members via the family chat groups.
This was one good application of the chat groups compared with a few others that are full of jokes and trivial matters. Some of these jokes and triva are repetitive, which clutter the conversation.
Today, these chat groups are an essential living tool, especially among family members. Every one is so busy that it’s no longer possible to have teh tarik and thosai regularly. Some family members are spread far and wide, making visits difficult. Hence, the usefulness of family chat groups.
But one must manage one’s expectation of these chat groups. It’s not always possible to send messages and get an immediate response, even if they are important messages.
Some mobile phone users have limited access to the Internet. If there’s no Internet connection, there’s no WhatsApp.
Some phone users depend on free Wi-Fi connections, which is why places like cafes are popular.
Nowadays, even your neighbourhood mamak shop offers free Wi-Fi. If they don’t have free Wi-Fi, you can expect less patronage. Nim, a cashier at a mamak shop, told me his shop has regular customers because it offers free Wi-Fi.
There must be etiquette in group chats, I believe. The person who set up the chat group, who is referred to as the group admin, may have to put his foot down if the chats become abusive or unfriendly.
One group admin I know would not hesitate to exclude members if they don’t fall in line with some earlier agreed upon do’s and don’ts. That’s fair, I think.
I belong to one chat group comprising elderly people of varied backgrounds. There are professionals and civil servants. They are quite particular with the language used.
One day, a member got a tongue lashing from one of the elder ones for using colourful language. After a round of apologies and reminders, the group continues to thrive and is now into its 10th month.
In a family chat group, the conversations vary a lot. The young ones tend to allow the elder ones to do most of the talking, whose topics can be serious and sometimes, morbid.
Messages that are long-winded are often read last, or not at all. These long messages tend to clog the group and occupy a lot of space. It’s best to not send or delete quickly.
Short video clips are also popular. A member of a three-man group send songs from YouTube, especially oldies that are no longer aired on radio. There’s something amiss if no song is sent to the group.
There are also budding ustaz or pseudo ustaz using the chat groups. They mean well with their messages but one can’t help feeling they are merely passing on these messages without even reading or understanding them.
I don’t know how you keep track of these messages. Some health tips are useful and worth archiving and sharing with others. I followed one tip that seemed to help my painful knees.
Otherwise, delete all messages and free the space for more tips to come in. I know some people have stopped reading books because they spend too much time sending and responding to short text messages.
Ahmad A Talib is the chairman of Yayasan Salam Malaysia. he can be reached via Twitter: AhmadT@aatpahitmanis, and ahmadt51@gmail.com