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Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?

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Re: Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?

#121

Post by crazydoggers »

ska wrote: post #116
crazydoggers wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it arrogant to dictate personal boundaries? If your not comfortable using a messaging app, you don’t have to use it. Why are you suggesting that everyone needs to bow to peer pressure or they’re arrogant? If I suddenly decide one day I don’t want to drink alcohol but all my friends do, if they see me as arrogant because of that, that’s their problem, not mine. I’m under no obligation to slowly stop drinking be…

It isn't arrogant but it is unilateral, which can always be a problem when it involves others. It's not always avoidable but if you are the one making unilateral changes you may end up bearing costs also, or needed to do extra to facilitate the change. If you suddenly decide to stop drinking, it's not arrogant and I would hope your friends would be supportive. Arrogant would be expecting them to all stop going to the…

Yes... just like I would hope others would be supportive of my choice of communication. No matter what, it’s definitely not arrogant.

And in fact if more people had the courage to buck the trends and potential be “isolated” then we wouldn’t be ceding so much of our privacy to these social media companies as we are now.

A phone call always works, no matter where in the world you are. We don’t actually “need” these services, as much as they would like us to believe so.

Re: Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?

#123

Post by crazydoggers »

spidersouris wrote: post #108
cassianoleal wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the reason why I put off quitting Facebook for years. I have done that a few years ago though, and neither I'm isolated nor I feel like I've lost anything meaningful. I'm still in touch with my dear friends and family, and that will continue without WhatsApp.

Some people just don't have the choice. My university class group depends on Messenger, several family members and friends do too. It may be easier to incite individual people to change messaging services, but when it comes to groups or common social connections, it becomes quite difficult. I can't ask everyone in a group to stop using Messenger just because I don't want to, and neither can I ask my family to contact…

You always have a choice. Belief that you don’t is the falsehood. If someone needs to communicate with you or you need with them, there are many ways.

The world functioned fine before Messenger.

Pick up a phone, or for that matter talk to people in person. It’s not rocket science.

Re: Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?

#126

Post by Krasnol »

andreygrehov wrote: post #80
Yetanfou wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you serious here? Working in AdTech - which does (or at least should) translate to "working on undoing the good which used to be the public internet" - you most certainly realise, and possibly salivate over the breadth and width of Facebook's means to profile 'net users, whether those be actual Facebook (as in "Facebook the site, Instagram, WhatsApp and whatever other company they reeled in") users or otherwise.…

I am 100% serious. I get the "ad-free public internet" nostalgia, but ads is an inevitable component of our economy. The good old internet was good only because it was something new and unknown. The very first newspapers did not have ads. 100 years after, Benjamin Franklin pulled the trigger and started a column for advertisers to promote their products and services. Ads are valuable. They can make a huge difference…

> it's actually in a user's best interest to allow the data to be shared. Otherwise doctors will see ads about vaping and fishers will see ads about the latest JavaScript IDEs

Who the hell do you think you are to decide what is in my best interest? You are attempting to STEAL my attention. This is abusive behaviour. I don't want this!

Also:

If I go on a page for fishing stuff, the shop is free to advertise certain fishing stuff products they want to push. ON THEIR PAGE. They do not need external content tracking people to the dog food page to show them the fishing ads there too. You don't need any data for that and nobody would block ads like that because they'd be part of the content of the fishing stuff store.

You are telling a story which is based upon lies you hide behind this what you are not telling AND YOU KNOW IT! You are one of those shady players and you've shown it RIGHT HERE.

Re: Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?

#127

Post by cassianoleal »

crazydoggers wrote: post #123
spidersouris wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people just don't have the choice. My university class group depends on Messenger, several family members and friends do too. It may be easier to incite individual people to change messaging services, but when it comes to groups or common social connections, it becomes quite difficult. I can't ask everyone in a group to stop using Messenger just because I don't want to, and neither can I ask my family to contact…

You always have a choice. Belief that you don’t is the falsehood. If someone needs to communicate with you or you need with them, there are many ways. The world functioned fine before Messenger. Pick up a phone, or for that matter talk to people in person. It’s not rocket science.

> You always have a choice.

I agree with this statement. It's always a matter of priorities and perceived cost vs profit.

In any case, I never said it was going to work the same for everybody.

I have simply given my personal anecdote of how I used to believe that there would be a high social cost associated with closing those accounts, and in the end I found the opposite to be true.

I know of many other such anecdotes, but I also know of a few rare ones where the cost was too big and they decided to reopen said accounts.

As always, YMMV - but please don't spread the idea that it will be costly for everybody. It might just be that people feel better and find other ways to communicate, or it may be that they decide to rejoin such services.

Re: Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?

#128

Post by hitpointdrew »

throwaway201103 wrote: post #113

Outlier here. Never used Facebook. Never used WhatsApp. Family communicates with me by email, or SMS.

Pretty much the same....I had facebook in the early to late 2000's but deleted it over a decade ago now...never once missed it. I had WhatsApp on my company computer because it was an outside parties preferred way of communicating with us, but I don't count that as it was a business only thing, never used it for personal use and the company now communicates with us via slack (thank goodness).

Re: Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?

#129

Post by andreygrehov »

bitcharmer wrote: post #117
andreygrehov wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, I took a look. You said that they share the contests of your messages. Looks like that's simply wrong. Messsages "We do not retain your messages in the ordinary course of providing our Services to you. Instead, your messages are stored on your device and not typically stored on our servers. Once your messages are delivered, they are deleted from our servers." Photos "When a user forwards media within a message, w…

They don't have to store anything to make a good use of that data.

"The information we share with the other Facebook Companies. includes your account registration information (such as your phone number), transaction data, service-related information, information on how you interact with others (including businesses) when using our Services, mobile device information, your IP address, and may include other information identified in the Privacy Policy section entitled ‘Information We Collect’ or obtained upon notice to you or based on your consent."

All in all, nothing special. Nobody shares your messages/media.

Re: Ask HN: How would you convince your friends and family to switch from WhatsApp?

#130

Post by ska »

crazydoggers wrote: post #121
ska wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't arrogant but it is unilateral, which can always be a problem when it involves others. It's not always avoidable but if you are the one making unilateral changes you may end up bearing costs also, or needed to do extra to facilitate the change. If you suddenly decide to stop drinking, it's not arrogant and I would hope your friends would be supportive. Arrogant would be expecting them to all stop going to the…

Yes... just like I would hope others would be supportive of my choice of communication. No matter what, it’s definitely not arrogant. And in fact if more people had the courage to buck the trends and potential be “isolated” then we wouldn’t be ceding so much of our privacy to these social media companies as we are now. A phone call always works, no matter where in the world you are. We don’t actually “need” these ser…

The "bar-like" scenario here is that they retain a whatsapp group chat that you are no longer in, and so you miss some stuff.

If you act unilaterally in a group context you should accept that too. Supporting your choice of communication only really extends to "oh yeah, crazydoggers isn't here now where did I put that app they use?". So you might hear from them less, but nobody is at fault.

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