Two blue ticks: Is it actually helping?

1 year ago, I turned off the “read receipts” and “last seen” in my Whatsapp chat app.

You know, the blue ticks.

It was useful information at first. I could know whether this person read my message. If the person hasn’t read my message, what was his or her last seen status? I would then follow up accordingly. I felt that I had more control.

As I became more aware of my thoughts and emotions, I realize these functions were inviting unnecessary mind chattering into my life.

When I receive a text from my boss, I would hesitate on whether to read it now. If I read it now, I may have to reply to it immediately as he or she would know that I have read the message and chose not to reply first. The pressure.

When I send a text to a potential customer to follow up on an order, I would check if there is a “blue tick”. If the ticks are blue and I did not get a reply, I would wonder, what went wrong? Often, the reply may come a few hours later. Within that few hours, my mind may occasionally drift towards the worst possible outcome. She is going to cancel on me. That’s why she read and did not reply. This may or may not be the case. The blue ticks did not change the outcome but it affected how I feel while waiting for a reply.

These "blue ticks" and "last seen" status do give me information. However, they also stir thoughts and emotions. The question is: How much value is this information giving me?

So what if I do not know if someone has read my text? If the person is ready to reply, she will.

If I need an urgent reply, I will call and follow up, regardless of whether that text has been read.

The outcome is the same. What is the price I am paying for this information? Mental and emotional clutter for information I don’t really need.

Both “blue ticks” and “last seen” are turned off on my Whatsapp for a while now. It does not give me the stress of “read but not replied yet” or “last seen at 3pm but chose to ignore my message”. I am not talking about experiencing huge stress over a chat app. These are mini stressors which we may not be aware of. The change is subtle but important. I want to be a conscious user of technology and will not adopt functions that are nice to have but delivering unwanted "by-products".

Personally, I felt more freedom not knowing when a person has read my message nor last appeared on the chat platform. Our minds are master story spinners. Giving the mind less material to spin off on helped me free up mental space and worry less.