Comment by lrvick
5 hours ago
I am a security engineer and I live and work in Silicon Valley with an active social life. None of these things require a phone.
5 hours ago
I am a security engineer and I live and work in Silicon Valley with an active social life. None of these things require a phone.
Though I do have a phone, I do not use WhatsApp. I get the same responses you are getting - people absolutely can not believe that we function in society.
I do not use WhatsApp, Instagram, or FB.
You pay a price (we miss many party invitations, only one friend consistently emails us and FB everyone else), but it's worth it.
Recently spoke to a colleague in Italy that told me he hates WhatsApp, but is forced to use it because the school of his kids in Rome use it as sole means to communicate, despite this being a legal violation (public organizations in Europe must use GDRR-compliant tools).
I bought into something like this, removed all social media for 2-3 years.
I lost so many connections to people and it seemed to set me back multiple years on my goals. I thought it would make me more productive, instead my userbase got cut in half.
I'm never doing that again. Huge mistake.
I can understand that in some social contexts it is possible. For me personally it would be very hard. E.g. most school-related stuff of our daughter is coordinated through WhatsApp, same with birthday parties, playdates, etc.