There were times when our mobile network providers used to offer daily quotas of 100 messages, which was a boon of sorts to the teens of the first decade of the new millennia. The count limit and the intermittent nature of the message flows weren't much of an issue back then as nobody had experienced anything like the WhatsApp interface back then.
When android OS started rapidly gaining market share since 2012, WhatsApp gained prominence too. By 2017, WhatsApp had become an integral part of the Indian vocabulary even in considerably remote localities. It had effectively transformed messaging from limited discreet flows to a continuous data-streams filled with photos and videos. When voice/video calls were introduced by WhatsApp, it became the dominant mode for international calls. Eventually, as even local calls started to migrate to internet mode, it forced network service providers to redefine their entire product line towards data-centric sales.
While WhatsApp has been so ubiquitous, its services are totally free of cost for users and unlike other social media sites WhatsApp doesn't show sponsored content either! Well, initially WhatsApp was toying with the idea of a subscription based model, with a paltry $1 per year charge (approximately). Nonetheless, the cut-throat competition in the market and the risk of being cloned by a deep pocketed competitor is likely to have nudged WhatsApp's sellout to Facebook Inc. Subsequently, WhatsApp gave up its subscription based model for a data-centric model. WhatsApp is now a data-mine that supplies unanimous data-rich digital profiles of users for external use (Spooky!). Now, only platforms of Facebook Group are using WhatsApp data for bettering their newsfeeds and monetizing, but the recent privacy policy update gives WhatApp the permission to even sell data directly to a 3rd party.
WhatsApp doesn't have profit spinning algorithms that tempt you to engage for longer hours by creating echo-chambers that feed you content to reinforce your worldview. Also, data shared through WhatsApp for a mass audience is not indexed for easy future reference. Thus, even though the 'Status' feature has made WhatsApp's utility a little similar to Facebook and Instagram, it is still remarkably different. Another key difference is that mobile number is used as the identifier for WhatsApp and it doesn't give users as much flexibility for restricting audience as the other platforms. More importantly, unlike the other platforms whose usage is a choice, WhatsApp's primacy as a messaging app makes it a mandatory accessory. The continuous nature of WhatsApp's message stream also makes it intrusive to a subconscious level, and thereby aiding in the generation a very insightful digital profiles of its users.
All these unique features have brought even people with little context of social media to sign up for WhatsApp. With an increase in userbase and with Jio triggering a fall in data prices in India, the volume of data shared over WhatsApp has spiked steeply in recent years. While this has revolutionized how people communicate, there are serious complexities that have risen. The end-to-end encrypted personalized communications that WhatsApp facilitates has empowered rumour mills with access to a vast audience. Through WhatsApp, sensationalist and falsified narratives have proliferated into the data streams of the gullible ones like cancer. There have been some instant violent flareups as a direct consequence of WhatsApp forwards, but what is going unnoticed is the slow social polarization that repeated exposure to sensationalist hate creates.
Despite the humongous benefit that WhatsApp has unleashed, the platform has generated a multitude of digital challenges. The nature and extent of data that is being shared across businesses is concerning, as the Orwellian Nightmare now seems very real. Further, WhatsApp also needs to pull up its socks to prevent nefarious communications happening through its platform. For these, the company needs to get innovate and opt for more humanistic user-centric designs. Apart from creating better structures to weed out hate/falsified content from circulation, WhatsApp also has the responsibility to enhance the intellect of its users through awareness drives.
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