WhatsApping

Allowing 1 or 2 people to ping you on WhatsApp due to some urgency or the other is one thing. Using it for voice/video calls when your WiFi is more reliable than your cellular network is one thing.

But the way people use WhatsApp today is just insane! Allowing yourself to be accessed whenever and wherever by multiple people simply means you are not living a focused meaningful life. Else you wouldn't be able to afford the distraction, the disturbance.

Folks are on family groups and cousin groups and friends groups and this and that group. Even if muted, they end up spending serious amounts of time scrolling through messages that are mostly just meaningless chitter chatter. And when not on mute, the situation is even more laughable!

What's the matter? People don't read anymore? They don't play music? Paint? Do Math? Study?

Be careful! Else this WhatsApp culture will just make you shallow and scatter brained.

As a friend puts it: Attention spans have reduced to that of lightening flashes in the sky!

A healthy mind can concentrate for two hours at a stretch fairly effortlessly. Then a few minutes of walking around and stretching, and another two hours. Overall, being able to spend about 10 hours a day with focus is normal mental ability. Normal!

In fact, that's how schedules at academic institutions are set up. Four hours of lectures before lunch, three hours of lab work in the afternoon, then relax, play a sport or engage with some other extra curricular activity, then dinner : and then three hours of studying. That's ten hours of steady, focused, mental activity. This is normal mental capacity. Normal.

So with life after studies. Every sensible person I know puts in focused eight hours of work a day and then at least two hours of reading or pursuing some other interest at home besides spending time with family members. Again, that's ten hours of steady, focused, mental activity in a day. This is normal!

I hardly see anyone with this kind of steady focus anymore. Everyone is always busy just chitter chattering / texting / checking messages / social networking ...

Be careful! Time is of essence! Your mind's capacity to concentrate is of immense importance. One can dissipate years of one's life meaninglessly if one is not alert.

PS: If you are on class / team groups, make sure folks are not getting left out because they can't afford a smart phone. There are many like that. Some can't even afford a simple cell phone. Your institute gives everyone access to computers and email accounts. That needs to your primary means of information dissemination.

And please, allow only the class representative, captain or coach to post on any email / WhatsApp groups. Else you will just waste time messaging and reading messages.