Class XI student Meenakshi went to New York for a week but her friends did not have to wait for her return to see the wonders of the city. The Boring Road girl was in contact with her friends the whole time on WhatsApp.
Youths in Patna have not just turned gadget freaks but also smartphone application freaks. No matter where they are around the globe, texting and chatting goes on without a stop — and they do not have to switch on the computer for that. They do it all on their smartphones that allow them to download applications such as WeChat, WhatsApp and Viber. The magic of these “apps” lie in sending video or text messages across all smartphone devices as long as the users have a working Internet plan and the application concerned.
With WhatsApp in hand, Meenakshi had no worries to communicate with her friends back home. She said: “I went to New York last week with my family. I shared all the pictures and videos from the vacation with with my friends .”
Rambos — a group of college students in the city — have even taken the childhood lessons of sharing to the smartphone platform. Ashish Kedia, one of the members in the group, said they use WhatsApp to share everything in their lives.
He said transfer over WhatsApp is much too quick than over text messages and multimedia messages. If any one forgets to do so, they are chided: “Mummy ne share karna nahi sikhaya (Didn’t your mother teach you to share)?”
Ashish also uses Viber to make free international calls to his brother in Australia.
Nageshwar Colony resident Deepanjali Singh waiting for her Class XII results is soon leaving for Delhi for higher studies. Extremely happy to get a smartphone, she said: “My parents think I am a smartphone freak but the reason for switching to one is I want to keep in touch with my friends through WeChat and WhatsApp. I have starting spending more time on these applications than I do on Facebook.”
Another prime reason to switch to the applications is the privacy they offer. “At least now we have some space where we can share our private pictures. The increasing number of cyber crimes and the limited privacy settings on the sites have make it difficult for us girls to share all pictures,” said Class X student Aditi Ranjan.
