The Blue Tick Ballyhoo

Much ado has been made about WhatsApp adding a feature to indicate when a message has been read.

The double-ticks, which indicate that a message has been delivered to the recipient device, turn blue when the message has been read.

Apparently, this new feature signifies The End Of Privacy, and this tiny blue planet shall surely burn to ashes tomorrow as it is The End Of The World As We Know It. WhatsApp, apparently, “yasnitcha“.

For me, this is very simple. I own this mobile phone. I purchased it with my own money. When I exchanged numbers with a contact, I didn’t sign a contract saying I shall respond to WhatsApp messages immediately upon receipt.

Your message may be urgent to you, but that doesn’t make it automatically urgent to me. I won’t ever tell someone “No, I hadn’t read your message” because that’s neither here nor there.

I reply a text message when I reply the text message. Not on anyone else’s timetable. Yes, I saw your text. No, it did not warrant an immediate reply. Sorry, I do not work for you, you are neither my Mouse nor my landlady. Stay behind the line.

It’s just like phone calls. “Joe, you did not answer my phone call, and haven’t called me back.”

I know I didn’t. I was there. And yes, this is MY mobile phone, that I purchased with my own money. I choose when to answer it, not anyone else.

So as far the blue tick debacle is concerned, I think more people need to change their mindset and realise that, actually, they’re NOT obligated to immediately respond to everyone’s text messages.

So if you send me a message on WhatsApp, chances are you’ll get a reply. But to then try and hold me accountable, and say you read my message why haven’t you replied? Sorry, nah.

Buy me a smartphone, pay my phone bills, then you can have a say in how I use it.

Until then, play your position.