The written and unwritten rules of Whatsapp
At the beginning of this year, there were 475 million people in the world who have WhatsApp on their phone, and all those people send about 50 billion messages. Per day. In the Netherlands, there are just under 10 million users, so just assume that almost everyone you are in contact with has WhatsApp (let's leave grandmas, grandpas, and babies out of it). We can't live without WhatsApp anymore, but man oh man, it can also lead to a lot of frustrations and misery, especially when chatting with a man. Therefore, it's time for order and clarity, structure and regularity, so Amayzine.com hereby presents the Great WhatsApp Regulation, in random order.
Turn off your ‘last seen’
Do that right now, if you haven't done it already. The biggest frustrations stem from the fact that you see you are being ignored. Because let's be honest, how many times have you thought, “HE WAS ONLINE AN HOUR AGO AND STILL HASN'T RESPONDED, THE JERK.” With texts, we never mind waiting hours for a reply, but with WhatsApp, it's deadly. Seeing that you are being ignored is hell; with a text or email, you can still fool yourself into thinking he might not have seen your message, while of course, that is the case, but the illusion is easier to maintain then. So turn it off.
Always close WhatsApp
Because if you don't, it may still say ‘online’ under your name while you might have left the conversation 5 minutes ago. The misery of WhatsApp is that it implies a kind of constant conversation situation. You are chatting, having a conversation, and as long as you are online, you are expected to respond. Messages are also shorter and more like loose phrases than complete messages (like with a text), so as soon as you are online, you have to respond. Slide up and pretend you're crazy then.
For an important message; screenshot and get out
Are you in a difficult situation of any kind and receive an Important And Long Message from the person you have a conflict with? Screenshot that stuff, and slide WhatsApp up so that you are offline. Now you can read in detail what that person has to say without feeling the pressure of having to respond right now.
Forward everything
Is in line with the previous point, because of course you forward everything to your girlfriends. “Okay, he sends this, what should I say?” or “OMG HAHA look what he sends HAHA.” Ask for advice and wisdom and see the next point. By the way, don't kid yourself, men do this just as well. Maybe not so much the panicky part, but if you send wildly exciting texts or other kinds of remarks, you can bet his male friends have screenshot it and have it in their WhatsApp.
Write your message in notes
Difficult Message you have studied extensively and forwarded, and now it's time for your response. You never ever do that in WhatsApp, but in your notes. This way, he won't see that you've been ‘typing’ for a thousand years, you can take your time and think it over, and you can screenshot your first draft again and forward it for comments and additions. Trust me, everyone does this.
Never just stop in the middle of a conversation
This one is especially for the men because men listen carefully, we find it really annoying when you suddenly decide not to respond anymore. You are texting back and forth for half an hour and then suddenly, silence. Total silence. Why?! Just say you need to hang up for a moment and that you'll talk later. Or, also so terrible, just never respond again. Never. Have the guts to say, “hey hi, you should hear this, I really enjoyed it, but let's leave it at that. Okay? “ Just good friends! We're only happy with that!
About smileys and emoticons
A difficult chapter because do we like them or do we find them stupid. Let me start by saying that you should always do this in moderation, and that the smiley with a wink and its tongue out is strictly forbidden. You should never ever use that. Furthermore, a smiley can be quite nice, a heart, that one with hearts in its eyes, or that one blowing a kiss in the shape of a heart is really sweet. Or a little rose, flower, whatever. As soon as you start using the face smileys to support the message of your textual message, you are on thin ice. All the little figures and characters can sometimes be quite nice.
Think a little about your spelling
We really understand that you are busy and probably doing ten things at once and that you are also WhatsApping, which is all quite informal, but still, pay a little attention to your spelling. Especially things like ‘me’ instead of ‘my’ or ‘m'n’. If you did that to me I would really be gone immediately..
