When all you have is a hammer, everything always looks like a nail and you will result to hammering everything that comes your way.
This is the problem facing a family of 2 parents and 3 teenage children which has now resulted to creating a WhatsApp group for every single thing, with the number of active groups standing at 38 and counting.
Our reporter caught with the family at a shopping mall in Karen, where he was added to one of the WhatsApp groups so that they could answer his questions in an appropriate way. As soon as he joined the group, he was met with over 100 notifications with most messages talking about WhatsApp management.
From the chats with the family members, it was evident that one group could not work for all communications. This was because an important message about Sunday outing could be ignored by all because the message preceding it was about homework, and no child wants to appear like they have read it. Consequently, they would not comment on the Sunday outing, thus missing the outing altogether.
The family now tries to put each communication in the right box. “Every group is created with a specific agenda in mind. If you want to complain about who left the toilet seat up, you need to do it in the right group, else you will not get a response,” said the youngest child who rarely does any house chore.
“I remember once when mum refused to give us pocket money because we asked in the wrong group. Posting in the wrong place can lead to serious financial distress.”
The parents said that they were not aware that all communications can be done in one group, as their children had heavily advised against it. One actually quoted Mark Zuckerberg and a tool called blocking and suspension from the platform.
The groups are expected to grow to 125 in the next one year.
