Celebrating One Year of WhatsApp

 Exactly one year ago, I sat back and thought of creating a Group on one of the latest social media applications, "WhatsApp”. My thinking was simple; I realized that I had very many friends I met in different settings, but these friends did not know each other. This “WhatsApp” interface would therefore help to bring us all under one umbrella, so that my friends would also become friends to complete the old English adage, “A friend of your friend is your friend”.

 The date was 7th of February 2014 when the first seven members were invited to my group, which I initially named “Dee’s Best Friends Corner”, “Dee” being my stage name, and the sounding of the initial for my name “Deo”. The beginning was quite rugged especially as most members were completely unknown to each other.  We started well, but like any other community, it was not long before we began to face some challenges. One of the challenges was failure to agree on whether members were free to share basically anything. I was very careful in selecting which friends to invite to the group, paying more attention to those individuals that would be cooperative. I made it clear to my friends that whoever dared to be insensitive to fellow members’ feelings, would be showed the exit immediately. A few other disciplinary measures were instituted, some of which carried a suspension penalty and others straight expulsion.