Go find the other response I gave to someone else who made that exact joke.
TLDR, I’m guessing you’re American and just don’t realize to what extent WhatsApp has entirely replaced texting in many, many places around the world, regardless of whether you use Android or iPhone.
Why does a texting app have a network effect for you? Is SMS completely unavailable on people’s phones in your country? Or are you just afraid of seeming a little bit different from the pack?
SMS is still expensive in other countries, internet access is cheap and WhatsApp is free. For example, it’s the only way my mom can keep in contact with her family in South America.
Because, see if you can follow this logic, sometimes my mom wants to tell me things. Also my doctor. And my government. And the plumber. And delivery guys.
It’s not a “pack”, it’s a society and a family. And it’s not about “being different”, it’s about not having to explain to every single person in my life that they need to talk to me through a different device than they use for literally everything else.
Nobody I know has sent a SMS since the 2010s. You do not realize how detached from reality that sounds. I just checked my phone, the last time I received a legit SMS that wasn’t an automated notification was February 2022, when a seller from an eBay-like service wanted to ask me a thing about a delivery.
So you’re saying sms does work on your phones, but it’s not commonplace so…guess if everyone’s using Satan’s butthole app instead might as well join the pack?
You have no idea how delusional you sound, this is like oh nobody makes phone calls anymore, instead they call through evilcorp ringytimes in my country so i guess i just have to give them all my personal information and offer up my first born, and it’s actually the fault of you guys…who don’t use this that evil corp requires that!
Oh, they call through Whatsapp, yeah. About 50% of the time, I’d say.
No, for real. A lot of my audio calls are through WhatsApp as well, they just show up as normal calls, and since that goes through wifi a lot of people on prepaid phones prefer that, especially if they have relatives in other countries that would trigger roaming charges. After a while it becomes habit.
You really, really, REALLY don’t have a picture of the scale of penetration into society of this particular application. I’m not shocked, I’ve seen it before. The slow realization is kinda funny, actually. If it makes you feel better, I keep hearing “blue bubbles” as something that full-on political parties have opinions about and I don’t see the point, either.
There’s not going to be any slow realization for me. Nobody in my country uses this shit at all and even if they did I still wouldn’t.
Part of the problem with your point of view is that you think everyone gives a shit about controlling or intends to control the behavior of these companies through purchasing and usage patterns. Maybe some people do intend that. I don’t, and I’m sure there are others that don’t either.
I don’t purchase this shit from these corporations or use their bullshit because it improves my life not to.
Okay, so does that mean if it improves your life to do so by, say, allowing your friends and family to get in touch with you without needing a tutorial first each time, you would use their services?
Because I have big news about what that would mean if you were to live somewhere else.
Look, I’m gonna try to be as gentle as possible here, but your argument that you don’t care because you’re too American to be concerned about how people do things elsewhere is not as good of a look as you may have thought it was when you wrote it. And your claim that your performative anger isn’t about making a point, but rather to “improve your life” doesn’t quite line up with your ardent defense of the idea that you express or withdraw support by using money.
That’s fine, we can move on from this tangent, but hey, at least respect my intelligence a teensy bit. Not even that much, just the bare minimum.
And your claim that your performative anger isn’t about making a point, but rather to “improve your life” doesn’t quite line up with your ardent defense of the idea that you express or withdraw support by using money.
Performative anger? WTF are you even talking about?
Money just is a form of support, and that’s not a notion. They even call payment to your children fucking “child support”.
your argument that you don’t care because you’re too American to be concerned about how people do things elsewhere is not as good of a look as you may have thought it was when you wrote it.
It isn’t an argument. It’s reality. Also i frankly don’t give a shit what it looks like.
I mean, not that anybody is reading this but us this deep into it, but if they were I’d just point at that post and shrug, and I’d feel pretty good about that.
Go find the other response I gave to someone else who made that exact joke.
TLDR, I’m guessing you’re American and just don’t realize to what extent WhatsApp has entirely replaced texting in many, many places around the world, regardless of whether you use Android or iPhone.
Who cares?
Why does a texting app have a network effect for you? Is SMS completely unavailable on people’s phones in your country? Or are you just afraid of seeming a little bit different from the pack?
SMS is still expensive in other countries, internet access is cheap and WhatsApp is free. For example, it’s the only way my mom can keep in contact with her family in South America.
See this makes a bit more sense than the weirdo wall of text I got.
It was three sentences, don’t be dramatic.
Your response was paragraphs of bullshit.
The sheer drama. I will keep all three sentences in a single paragraph next time. Honestly, full stops don’t deserve the hate.
Can you count?
Because, see if you can follow this logic, sometimes my mom wants to tell me things. Also my doctor. And my government. And the plumber. And delivery guys.
It’s not a “pack”, it’s a society and a family. And it’s not about “being different”, it’s about not having to explain to every single person in my life that they need to talk to me through a different device than they use for literally everything else.
Nobody I know has sent a SMS since the 2010s. You do not realize how detached from reality that sounds. I just checked my phone, the last time I received a legit SMS that wasn’t an automated notification was February 2022, when a seller from an eBay-like service wanted to ask me a thing about a delivery.
So you’re saying sms does work on your phones, but it’s not commonplace so…guess if everyone’s using Satan’s butthole app instead might as well join the pack?
You have no idea how delusional you sound, this is like oh nobody makes phone calls anymore, instead they call through evilcorp ringytimes in my country so i guess i just have to give them all my personal information and offer up my first born, and it’s actually the fault of you guys…who don’t use this that evil corp requires that!
Oh, they call through Whatsapp, yeah. About 50% of the time, I’d say.
No, for real. A lot of my audio calls are through WhatsApp as well, they just show up as normal calls, and since that goes through wifi a lot of people on prepaid phones prefer that, especially if they have relatives in other countries that would trigger roaming charges. After a while it becomes habit.
You really, really, REALLY don’t have a picture of the scale of penetration into society of this particular application. I’m not shocked, I’ve seen it before. The slow realization is kinda funny, actually. If it makes you feel better, I keep hearing “blue bubbles” as something that full-on political parties have opinions about and I don’t see the point, either.
There’s not going to be any slow realization for me. Nobody in my country uses this shit at all and even if they did I still wouldn’t.
Part of the problem with your point of view is that you think everyone gives a shit about controlling or intends to control the behavior of these companies through purchasing and usage patterns. Maybe some people do intend that. I don’t, and I’m sure there are others that don’t either.
I don’t purchase this shit from these corporations or use their bullshit because it improves my life not to.
Okay, so does that mean if it improves your life to do so by, say, allowing your friends and family to get in touch with you without needing a tutorial first each time, you would use their services?
Because I have big news about what that would mean if you were to live somewhere else.
Look, I’m gonna try to be as gentle as possible here, but your argument that you don’t care because you’re too American to be concerned about how people do things elsewhere is not as good of a look as you may have thought it was when you wrote it. And your claim that your performative anger isn’t about making a point, but rather to “improve your life” doesn’t quite line up with your ardent defense of the idea that you express or withdraw support by using money.
That’s fine, we can move on from this tangent, but hey, at least respect my intelligence a teensy bit. Not even that much, just the bare minimum.
Performative anger? WTF are you even talking about?
Money just is a form of support, and that’s not a notion. They even call payment to your children fucking “child support”.
It isn’t an argument. It’s reality. Also i frankly don’t give a shit what it looks like.
Yeah, I’m gonna rest my case here, friend.
I mean, not that anybody is reading this but us this deep into it, but if they were I’d just point at that post and shrug, and I’d feel pretty good about that.