It's been a strenuous week for many Nigerians and we can only pray for divine intervention with everything going on in the country. I won't deny the fact that Hive has been one of the things helping me to stay in the right state of mind despite everything going on in the country and I want to say a big thank you to everyone for keeping the platform lively.
My engagement on Hive this week reminded me of a lot of things. They aren't all good memories though and there were really funny ones as well. We had to write about emojis in the Hive Learners weekly contest and it reminded me of some blunders I made while using the social apps.
Humans are indeed prone to making mistakes but some mistakes are just unexplainable.
Like how do you explain that you sent a nude sticker to a church WhatsApp group?
Stickers and Gifs have made chatting a lot more lively and I enjoy using them a lot. It helps express feelings better and you don't have to type a hundred words just to tell how you feel.
One of the blunders I made happened to be one that didn't get off me quickly. I had to go to church for every service with the feeling that a lot of people now see me as a bad egg.
I was in charge of the church's social handles on different platforms, my job was to upload programs, post reminders, organize the online meeting and I enjoyed the duty.
It happened on a Saturday morning, my pastor told me to post a meeting reminder for workers. I did as instructed and soon the workers were all online.
The meeting lasted for about 30 minutes and many of us were in good mood to continue chatting after the meeting. We went on teasing each other and it got really deeper to the extent that someone decided to use a sticker.
I wanted to use it earlier but I felt it wasn't proper, there have to be standards when chatting on WhatsApp groups, especially religious ones or work-related groups but immediately I saw someone using it, it was as if the safety pin of a grenade was removed.
I quickly clicked on my emojis and went straight to GIFs. I was looking for a particular one to reply to the sticker that was sent and while scrolling, I mistakenly tapped on a nude gif. The most annoying thing about WhatsApp emojis, stickers, or GIFs is that it sends automatically once you click on them. I saved that particular Gif after it was sent by one of my naughty friends and I barely used it so why does it have to be that particular Gif on that day?
I was shocked to see the sticker and it took me a few seconds before I could even delete it. Almost everyone saw it because they were actively online and some people were even quick to screenshot it.
I felt really stupid and was wondering why I had to use a sticker, my obsession with it was just too much. I couldn't handle people's reactions and I just went offline.
Going to church the next day was difficult for me, I didn't want to be laughed at but I went and things turned out exactly as I was expecting. One of the senior workers tried counseling me and I asked myself, "does that silly gif define who I am or what I do privately?".
Everyone favorite George turned out to be a bad boy and it made me cold for a while whenever I was on the church premises. The jokes about the incident eventually got boring and my relationship with people returned to normal.
I didn't delete that particular Gif because that was the worse thing it could do to me. I use it when having naughty conversations and I even saved more of them from my friend's chats.
Another experience wasn't very serious and I am glad my blunder didn't cost me my job.
We held a WhatsApp meeting, it had to do with work and there were senior managers in the group. It was an impromptu meeting and I felt very comfortable since it was held online. The regional manager wanted to mention a name so he spelled it wrongly and I replied with a laughing emoji.
I was watching football and replying to the group chat as well so it happened because I was carried away with the football.
"George do you think we are here to joke? ", was the response that got my attention and I immediately apologized. My colleagues DM and laughed at him because he was this kind of Mr. Perfectionist.
Those experiences forced me to use emojis or GIFs only when chatting with friends. I used them during community hangout on discord and I am glad it means fun there.
