Annoying invitations

Yesterday, my cousin shared with me an interesting incident.

“Last night when everyone was sleeping, my mobile buzzed. I woke up with a startle. Thousands of thoughts flashed in my mind. Sleepily, I switched on the mobile wondering about the message. The next moment I felt like killing my friend who had sent me an invitation to play the popular game Candy Crush Saga,” she narrated.

At first, I couldn’t stop laughing. But then I wondered about it. Many people are targeted every day by others sending them invitations to play Candy Crush Saga, Farm Heroes Saga, Pepper Panic Saga or other games. 

It’s not only the Candy Crush invitation that annoys others. Many people even have the habit of whatsapping late at night disturbing the sweet dreams. While many people get infuriated by companies that send messages to promote their products without realising other’s problems.

One must realise that someone might be sleeping or might be busy in a meeting. They may get startled as the notification tune rings. And when they check it, they come to know it was a useless message. Although no one gets harmed, it worsens the mood. 

It reminds me of my uncle who faced a similar situation. He was busy in a meeting when he got a series of messages on the phone. He couldn’t check the phone immediately, but kept thinking about it all the while. Later, when he checked, to his annoyance, the messages were sent by a company to promote its products.

Here I wish to recall in a lighter vein an interesting writeup on a blog, where the blogger had mentioned that the Candy Crush notifications may cause the third World War.

He wrote: “Imagine a situation when the desperate Russian President Vladimir Putin would send American President Barack Obama a Candy Crush invitation just for fun. Obama might then ask the British Prime Minister David Cameron to send Pepper Panic Saga invitation to the Russian President. Then China will come out in support of Russia. This will divide the world in two parts. Thus the World War III will begin.”

(Published in The Gulf Today on August 30, 2014)