WhatsApp remains predominant over the years in communication with its mostly used feature— WhatsApp status. The feature allows sharing pictures and videos with their contacts for 24 hours, after which it is automatically removed. However, not everybody likes sharing their status with everyone from their contact list, so they choose to ‘hide’ their status from them. According to Edwin Howard Mucyo, WhatsApp status is a way of expressing himself and giving updates on what is happening at the time. “I hide my status from my parents and all senior family members so they don’t ask many questions about everything I post,” he says. Mucyo adds that the age gap between the youth and their parents makes it hard for them to understand most of the things they do today, so they judge everything, but the fact that the generations are different makes their preferences different as well. Kabila Kabera says he hides status from senior workmates because they always comment on posts, which gets annoying at some point. “If I post a friend on their birthday, there are people I know that will ask questions, interested to know if we are dating or just friends. It’s disturbing how some people are so interested in knowing about my life. If I want someone to know something about myself, I will just let them know. “They are others whose posts I don’t view because they don’t interest me,” he says. “People with the same business (competitors) tend to hide others from viewing their status just because they have copied their work and they don’t want them to find out,” he says. Ines Mutesi tells Weekender that she dislikes people who post scary content like accident videos. “I get so scared watching scary and violent videos and pictures. Some people can post five consecutive videos about accidents or horror content and I can’t find a reason to not hide their status,” she says. “I don’t like how some people interfere with my personal life basing on what I post. They get to the point of questioning what I do, why I do it even where I go. Before, I used to attend different parties and wouldn’t post the pictures I took just to avoid many useless questions and comments, but now I just hide those people,” she adds. According to Prosper Nsanzebagiha, there is no need to hide anyone from viewing his status. “I can’t hide my life because people will always judge. If I have a special message to address to one person, that is when I select only them to view my status,” he says. Clementine Uwamwezi, a mother of four, says that her children sometimes hide her from their WhatsApp status and she finds out from their father’s phone because they know that he never views any WhatsApp status. “I can’t blame my children for hiding their status because they need to be free to share their memories independently. As a parent, I sometimes worry about what they might be hiding but I know my children are well behaved,” she says. Agnes Mukeshimana says that she only uses WhatsApp status to post her children and grandchildren. “I don’t know anything about hiding status from my WhatsApp contact list,” she says. She adds that she just found out about the feature and does not find any use to it.
