The WhatsApp generation made today’s BJP; the Instagram generation is challenging it
The WhatsApp generation were Hindutva natives while the Instagram generation is insurrectionary. The BJP has had the toolkit to tame the WhatsApp universe and make
The WhatsApp generation were Hindutva natives while the Instagram generation is insurrectionary. The BJP has had the toolkit to tame the WhatsApp universe and make it dance to its tune; in the Instagram universe, the BJP is like a deer in the headlights, left with nothing other than brute force in response. Parents who have sent a message to their kids on WhatsApp and noted that they don’t even see it will recognise a disconnect. Then they discover that their kids these days communicate on Instagram, Snapchat, etc. The parents then set out to find their children on WhatsApp was founded in 2009; Instagram in 2010. WhatsApp has over three billion users compared to Instagram’s 2.35 billion. Social media usage trends are not cleanly mapped, but what can safely be said is that Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok are the preferred platforms of the younger generation, while older users who are on these platforms are playing catch-up.
Boomers on Instagram are more likely to be interlopers who feel it. It is on WhatsApp groups that the 50-plus generation revel, earning for themselves the sobriquet “WhatsApp uncles”. It is a case in which the gender bias in the nomenclature is entirely appropriate. Comment | The cockroach dilemma facing India’s political parties The WhatsApp generation prospered in the pre-BJP era, found jobs relatively easily during the growth years, and moved to urban centres. They were Hindutva natives who found in WhatsApp an instrument of empowerment when they were in their thirties. They believed whatever was forwarded to them on WhatsApp and instantly forwarded it further. And they multiplied their prejudices and their half-baked history lessons. Part of this generation left India for the West as temporary workers and waited for the citizenship of a foreign country. They wanted the children of others to restart the battles that their forefathers allegedly lost thousands of years ago.
They could not see what their children were thinking, and they continued to preach. And the state and the WhatsApp Uncle began to sound more and more alike: learn one more language or else; eat this and don’t eat that; marry this way or else; dress this way or else; and, to top it all, “If you can’t find a job, create one.” In recent days, numerous protesters declared online that they were leaving their family WhatsApp groups, which had become dens of bigotry and thought control. Two examples of this dramatic generational shift, which is not confined to India but is actually global, are worth noting: one macro and another micro. In Tamil Nadu, several reporters found during the Assembly election campaign that children in many families rallied behind C. Joseph Vijay and his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, while their parents tried to maintain their bonds with the established Dravidian parties. In the United States, Republican politician Nikki Haley is a staunch supporter of Israel and American militarism, while her son Nalin Haley, born in 2001, is a strident critic of both.
The BriefWire