Email, docs, music, maps etc have reasonable alternatives and you don’t depend on others to switch (a gmail user will receive my email from tuta). But with WhatsApp either you conceal and use it or you just don’t talk to people (tried convincing them to switch to signal and it simply doesn’t happen)
How do you deal with it?
I just don’t talk to people.
I mean, I didn’t watch Game of Thrones, so I’ll never be a citizen of humanity. Seems like a decade and a half went by of conversations that went “So did you see Game of Thrones last night?” “No, I don’t watch that show.” “Oh. Bye.” The sooner you realize everyone is an empty headed content consumer and there has never been anything worth saying to or hearing from any of them, the sooner you’ll wonder why you even own a phone.
While your statement was true regarding phone (and WhatsApp) being a lifestyle choice, it has become a critical requirement for participating in the society.
In India, every little thing now requires WhatsApp. Want to contact your doctor, lawyer or want to get receipt? Good luck if you don’t have a smartphone and WhatsApp.
So not having WhatsApp is not a choice. Believe me. I have been running GrapheneOS, WhatsApp free. It is so hard.
Disagree. My doctor shouldnt be using whatsapp to communicate my health issues. We guve them this freedom. Stand for your rights.
The doctor isn’t the problem here. They’re simply trying to communicate in the most frictionless way possible. So do the billions of people. The real failure is our governments. They allow basic communication protocols to be privatized and monopolized rather than mandating open, federated standards.
I find not having friends helps with this
All my friends went cold turkey when I canceled all Facebook products two years ago. I switched to signal; some were using it already, some followed me, some use both. Screw the rest; they can use SMS, or snail mail, it turns out they were unreflective jerks to begin with. Culling is always refreshing. Admittedly, with signal being USA based, I will probably switch to a EU service soon, so the fun starts all over 🤪
Im hearing more and more about Deltachat. Where is it based?
eh, it runs on e-mail infrastructure; also, it does a little bit more than messaging.
You can use your usual e-mail ID, and message anybody else’s e-mail ID, but securely only if they also use Delta Chat. To work around the big servers seeing your social graph, they recommend using randomly-generated IDs on always-encrypted tuned e-mail servers that they call “chat mail” servers.
Either way, you also get user-to-user web apps called WebXDC. This is something even some XMPP clients have added nowadays.
Everyone I talk to regularily has Signal or Discord (yes i know I would prefer Matrix or something), basically the only reason I have WhatsApp is one or two group chats I don’t read.
If Discord, why not WhatsApp?
I am aware, I’d like to not have to use either. I’m trying to convince my friends to try out Matrix, but I haven’t been successful yet.
So you would use WhatsApp if they were?
Its easy. I have never used WhatsApp. I refuse to install or use any meta apps.
I use WhatsApp without any Android rights other than foreground data usage. I still check my messages once a day, but if someone wants to reach me now, they have to use signal. It also makes it at least less bad for privacy.
My close circle of friends and family do use signal for me and I only get relevant messages every few days on WhatsApp, but getting rid of it still isn’t possible in my situation.
hard to say, I don’t use WhatsApp, i deleted it when FB bought it, yes, that long ago.
Thank you, that’s a great take
I don’t have Whatsapp and I will never use it. If people don’t want to use Signal, Telegram, XMPP, Matrix, SimpleX, or Delta Chat, we will talk over RCS/SMS.
Sms is now so developped, sending pictures and videos, calling is one click away, no need to install or update : it is surprisingly useful. Then you have the same issue with Wechat for Chinese communities
Only problem is that ive started noticing telcoms are discouraging their use by limiting number of sms on monthly plan. Wonder why …?
SMS is only text. Pictures and videos are MMS which, in many countries, are not configured by default, are not included in plans and cost a lot, around 0.20€/MMS.
Ah ! I am in France, did not knew that sorry
It’s a series of fallbacks. Eventually you’re calling each other on the POTS like a couple of cave-people.
I managed to do a surprisingly good job convincing a decent chunk of my friends to move over to signal several years back and they’ve mostly stayed. I still have WhatsApp but it’s a much more secondary chat app for me now days.
I just don’t talk to what Zuckerberg refers to as “dumb fucks”
It’s seriously so self fulfilling. Markey mark made it so easy to not be a dumb fuck. It’s literal actual written instructions on how to not be a dumb fuck. Millions fail the written instructions.
TIL he calls the people that send their data to him “dumb fucks”. But I don’t get what instructions you are talking about? 🤔
i patiently explain why i refuse to use it and then speak about the preferable alternatives
I make like-minded friends. They don’t use WhatsApp either.
I’ve only met one person who actually uses Whatsapp before and asked me to download it. My mom just asked me if I knew what it was 2 months ago because I guess it’s popular on cruises. It certainly doesn’t seem popular enough to have to deal with here at least
You’re in a lucky part of the world. In my area, Whatsapp is used a lot for sharing attachments mainly, e.g sending a photo of a receipt for claiming warranty, contacting government officials, etc. People here do understand that if I say I don’t use it, and even though they agree to use SMS and email, it still slightly annoys them as it is out of their norm. I am living by till now without Whatsapp, but it’s really difficult.
