How do you feel if every single conversation you had over lunch with a friend is spreading all over the street?. You will feel bad and say such a friend shouldn't be trusted and call him or her a Gossip. Call him one with no respect for privacy but each day we all find ourselves doing this same thing.
Recently I saw a screenshot of a WhatsApp conversation between two friends trending. Though it looked "scripted". Maybe the Original post was made to pass the information or the receiver was truly living up to his/her reputation. I was able to see the message the person was trying to pass. I recreated the conversation (the trending screenshot) just for the sake of this article.
It is now something common for people to share screenshots of their chats on their statuses and even to groups. Since it isn't spoken words, we see it as no offence. Fear of having one's secret all over the internet is now in people's minds.
I totally agree that it is meant for fun sometimes, just to make people laugh. Take, for example, a funny exchange of words between two friends can be seen online. It's quite understandable. But having intimate or confidential conversations pasted all over the internet can have an adverse effect on the victim. If you're the type that does this then you're no better than the snitch, gossip or whatsoever name you give a person who can't keep secrets.
It's the time of the year when every department and faculties are expected to elect a new set of Executives to govern and lead them for the next year. It's Usual to see so many faculty positions being contested by more than one candidate. However, it is rare to see departmental positions being contested by more than one person. Most times the Executives are Elected unopposed. But this year's seems to be different. Almost all positions are having more than one candidate.
This lead to Dichotomy in various sections. Two good friends turned enemies all because of this election and sharing of chats (screenshots). I'm not exempted from people with this bad habit, but with recent happenings, I realise how bad it is. The damage it could cause. And I realised how dangerous it is chatting with someone through texts or voice notes on any social media site is.
One of the friends shared their chat with another friend and the screenshot kept spreading until it got to where it ought not to. The affected friend was ridiculed and people didn't hesitate in passing judgement. No one bothered to ask what proceeded the statement shown in the chat spreading. Which conversation were they having, prior to the Statement which is making waves? No one cared. The friendship that has been on for over four years is presently on the verge of collapse as I am typing this. It has gotten to the stage that they now shade each other in groups and even share screenshots of previous chats they had.
With the way things are going, the relationship is damaged beyond repair. Because each was trying to implicate the other by sharing chats of when the other was saying something bad about another person. Even voice notes were shared.
This menace of sharing screenshots of chat with others has eaten deep into our skin that the best solution I could come up with while typing this is - " Whatsoever you know when others sees you can't defend or what you don't want another person to see, never type it to another. Be it your friend or even family". Until we all come back to our senses and respect each other's privacy by keeping all messages to ourselves and not posting screenshots of chats online, I will advise you to follow what I concluded with after much deliberation.
Thanks for reading!🤗🤗🤗
We will be held accountable on the things that we post online. We should make sure not to step onto other's rights.