By | Adil Malia
We are all B.Inf.(WA) ! Wonder what that is? It is the degree that all of us are eligible to write alongside our names now. It stands for Bachelor of (Round-tripped) Information from the (in)famous – Whats App University !
Every message that comes 7 times back to you thru various friends on different What’s App Groups becomes the undeniable truth. Sounds like those 7 important questions the night prior to your exams which were circulated in the student community as important questions tipped by some friendly professor ! Nobody verifies anything but the fact is self-attested & reaffirmed by its repeated circulation. If millions say so, it must be true. Cannot fight that logic…it’s carried herd-immunity !
This is the resultant Math to the unstructured social media analysis of messages that we carried out : If you are a member of 10 different W’App groups, the most critical messages/jokes/ stories/ analogies etc circulated by most W’App groups in your community (true/untrue) will reach you. Thus you will be educated by reading it and by forwarding such interesting messages to friends , family and unsuspecting others further, you will be learned as well. What a powerful ‘learning’ proposition.
Ofcourse, there is a set-back. See the doodle. It is not ignorance as much as incorrect information that is the bane. And who verifies its information ? Repeated messages are presumed to be circulated by knowledgable experts thus presumed to be true. Do you understand the vulnerability and risk of such a situation ? Well but that I leave to you.
The dear Doctor friend treating me for Carona (now I am fit and fine) then told me…India has no shortage of Doctors. Every Indian with a ‘Smart-Phone’ is a Doctor and also knows how to treat Carona . Wow !
He narrated : when my mother-in-law suffered Carona, my wife insisted on treating her thru W’App prescriptions. Thank God for once my mil proved her intelligence and insisted on taking my treatment. Now I dread going home !!!
We are all Social Media graduates from the infamous W’App University ! Wonder if that is good news or bad !
Republished with permission and originally published at www.adilmalia.com
