A Remnant

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At the bottom of a list, dominated by buzzing groups of recent creation, laid a forgotten and undeleted Whatsapp group. It was left to others when the creator no longer saw the purpose in persisting with it. Later, even the others left the group. I remained, not because I was faithful to the idea; I had not noticed it.

Now the group looked pitiful. Abandoned like some dilapidated family home which saw fewer and fewer visitors and eventually none. 

It may have started with the hopes of building an everlasting engagement. A conversation in the ether space, an accidental meeting or some rendezvous in the real world, that went well could have triggered the group's origin. It is the urge in us to expand a beautiful moment in time to eternity, which pushes us to take up such allegiance in nostalgia. 

I remember it had begun like most other human interactions. The usual pleasantries were exchanged. Where's and how's were asked. Amnesiac events of the past reminisced. Emotionless faces stared at the emojis, sent and received.  Some tried their best to be conducive - from remembering birthdays to sharing all that they could find from the other near-terminal groups. The sweetenings soon ran out of stock and some recovered from their blackout. Then there were prolonged periods of inactivity. Some members remained because they didn't want to offend the priest, but with time people found the courage. 

Now, I get to inherit a ghostless space. 

In a study of the walking behaviour of pedestrian groups, it was found that based on the density of the crowd, groups changed their walking patterns - from walking side-by-side, perpendicular to the direction they are walking, at low density to forming a V-pattern when the density increases. The patterns are formed to increase their social interaction. 
The online groups seem to do the opposite- they start with a pattern that resembles a circle and with time it opens up and the segments move apart forming patternless blips on a colourless screen.  

A quick search on the need to form groups gives a scientific explanation that there is an evolutionary need to belong to a group to increase the chances of survival. People form groups to achieve goals and seek acceptance. There is the need to abate the uncertainty about their identity by belonging or by being accepted by a certain group. Whatever be the pattern and however be the manoeuvring it all seems to be with survival as a purpose. That adds to the existential nihilism - the philosophical theory that life has no intrinsic meaning or value.

It is definitely cynical to see a regular event like start and abandonment of a WhatsApp group as a tragedy. However, it can tell things about the observer and the observed. An observer with such a view could be categorized as misanthropic and the observed can simply be 'Normal'.What is interesting is that the observer and the observed become undiscernable. The observer perceives the people engaged in these exercises as viscous liquids of varied colours that interplay in a beaker. These liquids form patterns of beauty, ugliness and the ones in between; representing desires, ambitions, complexes, aspirations and obsessions. Then the observer feels a sudden push on slippery ground. She swells and leaps into another emotion that cannot be distinguished or named. The observer and the observed become a seamless amalgam adding to the pointlessness of the cyclorama.

I choose to exit. I am given the option to delete the group and permanently push it into non-existence. I let it be - a remnant of something that represents the various human struggles and the ability of humans to create, participate, observe, appreciate, criticize, reminisce, let go and uncreate.