My irl friends are convincing me that I’ll be left behind if I don’t use platforms like #Snapchat, #Instagram, or even #WhatsApp to communicate with others

I try convincing them #Signal, #Matrix, and even #Fedi are better options all around, they should give it a try (ofc, they just try to convince me again the same thing)

I hate it

@asahi95
I still use Whatsapp because my irl friends are there, but I don't use either snapchat or instagram.

I know it would be hard for them to move to another chat service like Signal specially considering that they are not tech savvy

@asahi95 you will kind be left behind, but that's nit really your fault
And sometimes it is even for the better

@Tau My father switched to Signal very easily without any issues, which was very convenient for me

I'm hoping to get the rest of his side of the family on to Signal eventually, I think they would say yes

@sun_eater Pretty much, well I hope they eventually move to the designated platforms I use but that'll take quite a while

Maybe one day

@asahi95 I don’t know how popular WhatsApp is in Japan but here in Spain everyone uses WhatsApp, it’s the main way of remote communication for everyone you may meet here so it is incredibly difficult to convice each and every person to not use it.

At least WhatsApp still keeps end-to-end communication

@Tau LINE, another messenger, is very popular in Japan. Despite being closed source ofc, they are rather more friendly with privacy and security than WhatsApp, and rather a friendlier corp

I much prefer using LINE than WhatsApp in all honesty, although I do like Signal more due to its simplicity

@asahi95 I deinstalled WhatsApp and told people they could install Signal or Threema or I’ll contact them via SMS, phone calls and mail in the future 🤷 Those who I talked to most installed Signal just to talk to me and the others were already only using SMS. Everyone else can get calls and mails.

@asahi95 well i don't see the appeal on having irl friends on here but good luck

@sun_eater I mean I suppose I can find better friends, they don't seem to be very friendly to my preferences either way

Also, thank you

@jade You seem to be kinda lucky tbh, my friends just straight up said "Ok, we're staying on these apps anyway. If you don't want to use those apps, don't chat with us."

I was completely pissed, I'm thinking of maybe looking for other friends to be with that accept my preferences or at least call my number or email me

@asahi95 Well, that was pretty much what I did. Anyone who I didn’t contact regularly just didn’t get a notice at all and everyone else (which was just a handful of people) got a message from me about how I was gonna ditch WhatsApp and how they could keep in contact with me.

Your friends - quite frankly - don’t seem like friends at all if that’s all they had to say to that and it’s probably better for you to ditch them. When people assume they can use WhatsApp with me, I usually just inform them of the fact that I don’t use that.

Even my niece and nephew who are way younger than me installed Signal to keep chatting with me. So not an age thing either, but a people thing. Don’t let them get you down. You’re not in the wrong for wanting to use a different app and not going with the flow.

@jade I guess you are right, if they don't even want to install at least one app just to talk to me and keep in touch, they aren't true friends, which is quite sad to notice the truth but I guess that's how it is sadly 😕

I won't let their opinions and words cloud my mind, I have the right to use another service that I prefer more over the old one, I mean I felt guilty of it at first but I rather am proud of decoupling myself from big tech media.

@asahi95 Yeah, when it comes to friends, life can be quite turbulent. Not a lot of people stay friends throughout their whole lives. A lot of relationships are more circumstantial than real and deep connections, but it’s of course, completely normal and understandable to feel sad about it.

You have the right to do what you want just the same as your friends. Trying to apply peer pressure - as in your case - always leaves a bad feeling, tbh. Wishing you lots of fun on the Fediverse

@jade Tysm, this post is pretty helpful ngl, and I quite agree!

I hope that possibly one day, I can find a good friend group that I can potentially still communicate with for a long time, share the same interests, and even have fun with on Fedi too