You know those people, right? The ones who operate WhatsApp like a cosmic fax machine. You wake up, and your phone is already buzzing with ten good-morning-lotus-flower messages and a “news” story about a five-headed cow in Rajasthan that can predict the stock market. And every single one of them has the same two-word disclaimer: “Forwarded as received.”
It’s like they’re the moons of our digital solar system. They don’t create their own light. They just dutifully, beautifully, and sometimes alarmingly, reflect someone else’s. They’re the silent revolutionaries of misinformation, the believers of everything, and the pioneers of absolutely nothing. Their expertise isn’t in typing, or thinking, or even questioning. It’s in the art of the forward button.
And they think they’re being socially responsible! They put that little “Forwarded as received” note there like it’s a get-out-of-jail-free card. As if saying, “Hey, don’t shoot the messenger, I’m just the dude holding the flashlight” absolves them of all responsibility.
It reminds me of those crazy drivers on the road. The ones who are about to make a completely illogical U-turn on a crowded highway, so they just switch on their hazard lights. Those double-blinking lights are supposed to say, “Caution, I’m in a tricky situation,” but what they’re really saying is, “I’m about to do something stupid, and I’m justifying it.” That’s what “Forwarded as received” is. It’s the WhatsApp equivalent of a hazard light. It’s a shrug.
Well, what can I do? I just got it and sent it.
But here’s the thing about life, and about WhatsApp messages, and about believing things: a shrug is not an answer. Your belief is your own. Your panic is your own. Your actions are your own. The world is a beautiful, messy, diverse place where what motivates one person to act might be a complete joke to another.
So when you get a message that excites you, or makes you furious, or sends you into a panic… why do you feel the need to forward it? To share the panic? To spread the unverified news?
Maybe the next time you feel the urge to press that little arrow button, you pause. You read the message, you absorb it, and you let it end with you. Break the chain. Don’t be a moon, just reflecting someone else’s light. Be a star. Create your own. And if nothing else, don’t be the guy blinking a hazard light on the digital highway.
0
20