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WhatsApp and the domestication of users
(seirdy.one)
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this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
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Technology
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Good article - but as it points out I am entirely powerless. I can’t move away from WhatsApp as everyone, absolutely everyone I know (in the UK at least) uses WhatsApp as their primary or only messaging app/service.
The EU Digital Market Act is in place and WhatsApp was considered a gatekeeper for messaging so they will probably be forced to open up to other messaging networks, hopefully breaking the network effect
I'm in the UK, and I use Telegram. It's far superior to WhatsApp, and has somewhat better ethics (for now).
Telegram doesn’t use end to end encryption by default.
I use Signal and Matrix and what have you but in the end if I want to be able to join in with communications with family and friends beyond a few specific people I need to use WhatsApp.
Absolutely agree. WhatsApp is the default in my country and all across Europe. For instance, I was on holiday earlier this month and the hotel I was staying in just contacted me through WhatsApp with check-in info. They hadn't replied to earlier emails but defaulted straight to WhatsApp for communication. It would be a nightmare to move away from it at this point. At least it still doesn't feel like a Meta app.
You can, it'll just be a struggle.
If you stand firm, you can get enough people to recognize that there are viable alternatives, and once you hit a decent number of friends and family, it takes over on its own.
Possible if they respect your opinion, not really if you are a weird guy with a disorder whom they like, but are not going to take as a tech authority or something.
I already had this with recommending Linux (and other Unix-like OSes). All my attempts to even talk about it were taken with zero understanding, but once another person tried Fedora and liked it, this started spreading like a virus.
Asia is like Line, and maybe some other Chinese apps that I will never install.
The interesting part is, email is still working fine as alternative. I didn't install any other message app cause email and whatever next iteration of gchat for me is enough. ( I will probably slowly migrate to proton email and some 3rd party cloud storage hosting instead of just use gmail and google drive for photos.)
But yeah, for the less tech oriented population, overcome the hurdle of use different app is really huge obstacles. (Like my mom still tries to share things with me through Line app, even though I teach her how to use email a couple times. it made search for older shares much easier.)
Give your mam Deltachat, it uses good old email. It was a miracle for me, so that with people friends that didn't want to use xmpp or matrix I just use email thanks to Deltachat. Some of them even installed it and like it so far. Everybody has an email so I can reach plenty of people with DC.
Thanks, will check it out. :)