this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
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There's a good chance I'd walk out over that too. I've never encountered it in the USA or Germany, but the author made it sound common in Australia.
The author specifically mentioned people telling her “Oh I don’t text, do you have Insta or WhatsApp?” This is also true in Europe; WhatsApp is essentially universal, and some people have to pay per SMS sent. Some people also have another messaging app (Signal is reasonably common among my social group), but that won't cover everyone, and group chats with more than three or four participants just aren't going to happen.
The average person does not really understand what Meta is doing. I do, and I think the author does, but neither of us is in a position to change the behavior of a majority of people in our regions.
The only way we can change this is if we don't participate and be vocal about it why. If this leads to people not texting me, well its their choice if they want to reach me or not. Otherwise it will be going on forever and not a single blog article will change that.
If you're willing to endure a lot of inconvenience to maybe move the needle a tiny bit, I admire you. It also differs from place to place; if no restaurants exclusively put their menus on Instagram where you live, and most people do use SMS, then it wouldn't be as painful for you as for the author.
I've made the move to grapheneOS and away from google and meta a few weeks back. Yes, there are some things that are not as easy as before but most of my friends moved to signal with me. Some in addition to WhatsApp, some exclusively.