Is It Some Kind of Games?

Bismillah.

Prolog

Dibawah ini tulisan impulsif tentang fenomena/tren yang aku lihat di hellotalk. Alhamdulillah aku tulis, lalu berhenti. Sempat ada pemikiran untuk ngajak diskusi beberapa orang yang mungkin bisa menjawab 'keresahan'ku ini. Tapi setelah diberi jeda. dan qadarullah suaraku juga sedang dalam kondisi gak bisa diskusi dengan siapa-siapa, ternyata, mungkin solusi sementara memang cuma menuliskannya saja. Mungkin aku akan menemukannya nanti, atau bisa jadi hal ini akan menjadi hal yang gak perlu aku cari tahu karena gak penting. Entahlah.

Aku sadar, saat berinteraksi dengan banyak orang, mengobservasi hal-hal di sana, akan ada banyak pertanyaan yang tidak terjawab, bahkan mungkin tidak perlu dicari jawabannya. Tapi disisi lain, kalau misal bisa nemu jawabannya, barangkali aku bisa memetik banyak hikmah dan pelajaran dari sana.

***

Is it some kind of games?

What games are you guys playing?

I'm not asking because I want to participate. I'm getting curious. What are the rules? And why you guys like playing that game?

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At first, I get to know some people who changes name and profile from time to time. But I am only there as observant.

I do ask question, the answer at that time satisfied me. She said, she just want to be invisible. So no one bother her. That's also another reason why she hide behind a male character who only wants to talk to girls.

But then I meet another "player". This time as if it's a habit, casually they interact with me as if I'm also a player. I kinda notice how it is the same person that play and pretend to be stranger. But at that time, I don't have time or energy to become curious about the game, or that player. So I stated my boundaries,

💬 Me: "If somehow you have many account and playing strangers by using new names/account. I'll just pretend I didn't know it was the same person. I don't have energy to ask more questions about this."

That person answer me lightly, telling me that I don't have to know about it all.


And then I elaborated, this one, I don't know if he read it or not. And I don't really care also—I'm the type who doesn't need feedback/reaction, as long as I have space to pour it down in words.
 

💬 Me: True. I don't want to know all of them. Sometimes I just can't understand why many people changes name and profile picture just like everyday clothes in HT. I want to know the psychology reason behind it. I know some of people who does that. She said, she just don't want anyone to point out that she is she. But still, I can't understand why.

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Time passes by, everything is calm and peace. Until yesterday. I was just curious about the feature from hellotalk that let us limit people to chat us. Where is the setting of that? Is it only for VIP user? Just a normal curiosity that I always have everytime I explore a new app (before this I also ask a lot about the gamification, the hosting room, the whiteboard facility, how to host live in laptop, etc).

My friend who's senior in this app didn't know the answer. She actually didn't even know that we can limit people to chat us. So I start to explain to her what I found, and to give her the example, I was scrolling through my chat, where I only click "send thank you" but getting that notifications that the user didn't receive chat.

Strangely, just after I give the screenshot, suddenly the account is deleted. Wow. Such a perfect example. So the conversation goes.. to this kind of game that almost everyone's playing here in HT.

I was reminded of a post moment by an account about how she is a fool for attending a mask party while wearing nothing but her real self. I have a little bit chat with her, and kinda now a little bit about her backstory.

She said she deleted her last account to avoid someone. And then, because she feels she's addicted to this app, she joined this app again with a new account. For a fresh start. Even though at the end, the one whom she avoided can easily find her again. She's really just can't play a good mask game. Even me, who only interacted with her once in the old account (to ask about the book she read) can immediately recognize that she's the same person.

At that time I still don't get curious about the game they play. Or about the mask party. My curious question at that time is,
 

❔"Why are you addicted in hellotalk, you just here 3 months with the old account.."

❔ "What's so good about this app that people get addicted to it?"

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Back to my friend and I who chat over the limitation chat feature, and we found out that my example account is deleted.

💬 Me: ​Aku masih belum bisa paham, kenapa orang suka banget buat hapus buka akun baru di HT​. Itu beneran krn addicted?

💬 My Friend: Biasanya menghindari seseorang atau ingin buat branding baru bahkan menjauhi orang-orang yg sudah dikenal. 

💬 My Friend: Iya, kebanyakan konflik psikologis

💬 Me: Banyak drama ya di HT? I don't want to involve in any drama lol. Mending fokus baca buku aja. Ngobrol sama yg jelas2 org baik

💬 My Friend: Iya, sebenarnya jangan hapus akun, cara ampuh itu main di server lain, selagi di server indo mau akun baru atau lama, sewaktu waktu akan ketemu lagi

 

💬 My Friend: Banget, melebihi indosiar.

 

💬 My Friend: Aku malah fokus dg diri sendiri aja sih, malas ngobrol

💬 Me: Pantesan pada kaya main pesta topeng. Ganti nama, profpic udah kaya kerjaan tiap hari.

 

💬 My Friend: Iya, mereka punya waktu untuk itu

💬 Me: I just can't understand their psychology. Bukannya malah tambah anxiety dan overthink ya. Jadi nebak2 itu akun itu dia bukan ya.

 

💬 My Friend: Bener, mereka tambah sakit sebenarnya, malah jadi avoidant

💬 Me:  Cape di hati dan pikiran.

 

💬 My Friend: Banget

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And then at night, I was just reminded of an account whom I chat with before but never interacted much. I remember how that account change from ghost character to a good character that I kinda like both the name, the profile picture and even the target language. I was just about to see the profile, take a screenshot and save it for myself. I think it will be a good inspiration for a character to write. (I do still sometimes write a short fiction).

But then, it changes. Both name and profile. And as my curiosity win me, I chat that account and ask, if he would be kindly give me his previous profile photos. And then, my short interactions with that account make curious again this trend on hellotalk, where you change name and profile frequently, or when you delete and reactivated account again and again.

Let me copy paste my title and prolog again.

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Is it some kind of games?

What games are you guys playing?

I'm not asking because I want to participate. I'm getting curious. What are the rules? And why you guys like playing that game?

Can somebody kindly enlightened me about this trend? Social game?

Can somebody explain to me the psychology behind it?

I'm curious. Now, I'm seriously getting curious about it.

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PS:

Last night I read my friend's substack article, she wrote review from multi identity book by Zahid Ibrahim. There, I found this quote, at first I try to make it as a comfort to my heart, that maybe... Maybe it's what they do in hellotalk 

 

"We aren’t wearing masks different sides, after all. We are simply allowing different sides of ourselves to take turns breathing. These identities don't collide to destroy us, but rather enrich one another."

I was adding my comment as I sent the link of the article and that quote to one of HT account that follow my substack.

💬 Me: Probably what you and most people does in HT is not wearing masks, just a way to allow different sides of you to breath.

But then as I woke up this morning, still have many question in my head regarding this topic I send another chat to the same person on substacks.
 

💬 Me: Or it's probably something else. I don't know. The more I try to understand, the more I feel like I don't know at all

***

 

Sekian, hikmah sementara dari rasa penasaran akan tren tersebut di hellotalk adalah, keputusan yang tepat segera menuliskannya dan memberi jeda. Nanti, kalau misal aku beneran diskusi sama orang yang bisa dijadiin narasumber, wkwkwk. Aku update lagi ya cerita tentang ini. Tapi gak janji juga ya, ada banyak hal lain yang harus ditulis.

 

Wallahua'lam.