The 'WhatsApp' Gimmickry Among The Youth Of Ghana

The experience I had in a car this morning on my way to the office has compelled me to weave words into article for my readers this morning, is nothing serious but is worth knowing.

The world is now controlled by technology and since the advent of modern Technology, our basic daily activities has been transmuted by technology. Writing this piece has reminded me of an old Kindergarten song that says 'Fire is a good servant, but it can be a bad master too'. I think lyrically I will substitute the fire in the song with 'technology' so it will give a drift of what is to be expected in this piece.

Since the advent of Whatsapp Instant messenger, it has shifted the paradigm of communication in our society. Some of the impact are positive, other are simple funny. I was in a commercial vehicle this morning to the office, there is this lady who sat by me and her posture left me questioning her mental faculty until I realized someone has engaged her on whatsapp that is why she kept on laughing to herself uncontrollably, I was surprise to know I was the only person in the car who seems astonished with the young lady's behavior. Everybody was comfortable with her weird behavior as if nothing is wrong

When it was time for the conductor of the bus to take the transport fare from his passengers, that is where I became more confounded, I raised my head to take a look at the reason why the conductor kept on repeating himself, to my surprise everybody in the car has buried his or her face deep into their phone seriously 'whatsapping 'This attitude led most of them alighting at wrong bus stops. I was even told by the mate he had an experience where a young guy mistakenly joined a Car routed to Tema in anticipation it was a Spintex Car.

The Impasse on my mind is, are Ghanaians been friendly with Technology? Africans have an attitude of overdoing things; this assertion can be juxtaposed by how we use cars in Africa. It's typical to see an African man using a car designed for carrying goods as a passenger car, It is again only in Africa where water heaters are used in cooking palm nut soup . You can call it ingenuity or what have you, but the fact still remain Ghanaians always throw spanners to the wheel of technology. Whatsapp undoubtedly, has drastically reduce the cost of communication and it has also increase the level of communication among the youth especially, and as I rightly indicated earlier on with a remnant of an old Kindergarten song, the same whatsapp has the biggest tendency of making us socially mad.

Metaphorically, technology is like a sword with two sharp edges and our approach to it makes it more useful to us. A lot of business men and women are grateful for coming in contact with this wonderful platform(whatsapp) that gives them the opportunity to send sample of their goods to their prospective clients. Is also bridging the communication gap that was created as a result of expensive calls to international countries. But I don't believe we must do this at the extent of doing it in the middle of road, class rooms, meetings etc. In attempt to write this piece, I came in contact with a research about how Instance messaging and chatrooms conversation has badly affected English language of students in some part of the world.

We all agree technology plays a very important role in the process of communication in today's world. Internet chartrooms, SMS and Whatsapps, are the most effective, convenient and widely used technological instruments for communication globally. One of the most accessible tools of communication in today's world is the cellphone text messages. In spite of the fact that new technology facilitate the process of communication.

Internet communication applications including chartroom and email exchanging on the one hand and the text messaging on the other hand play a positive role in making communication easy and fast. Yet, there are negative effects derived from using these tools. According to the research, there are detrimental effects on the language proficiency of English language learners. Learners of English using new communication technology especially text messaging commit numerous errors ranging from incorrect spelling to ungrammatical sentence structure.

According to the research, about 70% of youth today use some of the so-called Short hands and Pidgin words in their Official Examinations. My advice to the youth is, we should whatsapp with decorum and again, is proper we use it to our advantage rather than harming ourselves with it. Below is a table of some English Language that has been obliterated or shorten to suit whatsapp gimmickry.

WHATSAPP-ON-PC

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