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Why are WhatsApp groups bad for our health?

2023-06-04 21:44:15Lifestyle SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Why are WhatsApp groups bad for our health?
Why are WhatsApp groups bad for our health?

For Korkor, 26, cellphones are an endless source of anxiety.

"Whenever I see that I have several messages at the same time, it feels like someone is trying to contact me at once so I think it's an emergency. I immediately panic and worry," he says.

But just like short and quick messages, long ones also create anxiety. "Long texts fill me with fear. The tone can be misunderstood, it's better to hear a person's voice and hear it in real time", says Korkor for The Independent .

These days if you own a smartphone, there are several different messaging platforms available to users. WeChat. Signal. Viber. And so on. But the most popular is WhatsApp. Acquired in 2014 by Meta for $22 billion, the app has more than two billion total users and has become the go-to tool for professional and personal chat, allowing people to exchange information, gossip and jokes more quickly and easily. more efficient.

You can use it to send videos, photos, GIFs, voice messages, and more. It is, in short, for all its purpose, a lifeline for many of us. But over the years it has become the cause of increased anxiety, with each option presenting itself as a new worry to ponder.

These include when you see someone writing online, knowing they are writing a message to you, when you see they have read the message and choose not to reply, and when you see someone when they were last active. However thankfully these options can be turned off. But this is not enough to put an end to people's worries.

"I find it overwhelming," says Tom Bourlet, a holiday planner who uses WhatsApp for work but also to meet people. While the sign that shows that the sent message has been read causes concern, for Bourlet a particular source of concern is groups.

"So many groups are being made for every meeting and event. People are posting nonstop. I have ADHD (a neurodevelopmental disorder that occurs mostly in childhood) and I have to focus on what I'm doing, so I don't have time to check messages because otherwise I'll get distracted. But every now and then I find myself reading dozens of messages," he says.

But even if you turn off your phone at work, when you turn it back on you will see that you have more than 100 lost messages in a particular group. The pressure to catch up on everything you've missed can become unsettling.

And this is not helped by the fact that people today create groups on WhatsApp for the most trivial reasons.

"WhatsApp groups are characterized by all the types of qualities seen in other social arrangements where individuals compete for attention," explains Marc Hekster, psychologist.

For him, the more people there are in the group, the more difficult it becomes to establish group dynamics.

"Consequently, conversations can become an uncontrolled space where individuals project what the message sender's feelings are, be they positive or negative. This will increase anxiety," he says.

The worst thing for a psychologist is to join a group without the person's approval.

Then it's also an art to leave a group without dealing with other people watching you leave. Now, WhatsApp has given the option to leave silently and the only ones who are notified are the admins of the group.

Zoe Clews, who specializes in anxiety, says it's best for people to understand that they can't respond to all messages at the moment and that's not a problem.

"Give yourself permission to stop and sleep and say you'll respond to this message tomorrow," she says when it comes to the messages we feel pressured to respond to.


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