Refusing to Use WhatsApp for this reason

[dottypotter]

Someone in the family refuses to use WhatsApp and be in the family group as they don't believe it's private and safe.
I have never heard anyone give this as a reason has anyone else

We now have to text them separately etc cos they won't use it.

It's so useful to all be on the same group. Just never heard it as a reason before.

"This is perfectly reasonable as long as you don't expect people to contact you separately when making arrangements.
Why not FFS?"

Maybe the pp has better things to do than send the same message individually to people because they refuse to be in the group to receive a group message.

10 people arrange a mutually convenient time to meet, Beryl who doesn't use what app then has to be messaged to find out if she can make the date... she can't... go back back the group and start again . Massive pita all because Beryl wears a tin foil hat.

DH’s grandparents don’t have a mobile phone so we have to (shock horror) use an actual landline telephone to communicate path them.

My mum is still using a Motorola mobile phone circa 2005, so she doesn’t have WhatsApp.

FIL is partially blind so doesn’t do any kind of text, although he does have a mobile.

DH doesn’t have any socia media at all including WhatsApp.

DS has muted WhatsApp notifications because of the ridiculous amount of college groups he had to join during covid, and never checks it.

But yeah, fuck em all eh! I’m telling them it’s WhatsApp or nothing in future.

Therfore I would just not bother inviting Beryl.

I don't like being in a whatsapp group. I delete them as I find I end up putting messages in them by mistake. I don't like any whatsapp chats, open, apart from with DH and DC. I delete any others after I have read them.

My mother doesn't really like it either, we do tend to still text her separately and invite her ti family things or let her know updates on her grandchildren.

If there's lots of notifications and she's trying to concentrate she will mute the chat, or mute her phone when eating dinner because the ding ding ding ding of her phone is distracting and then when she does pick up the chat to see 50 messages where we've been active, she feels a bit overwhelmed keeping up.

It's no big deal for one of us to make sure she knows she's been invited to lunch for her grandkids birthday etc

Well then you just invite her and she can say "yes" or "no"? Just like in the olden days! Someone invites. You can or can't make it...the end. Weird to leap to "I just won't invite Beryl at all then in case she can't make it"

Unless Beryl is a massive dick. Fucking Beryl 🙄😂

That's your personal preference. You can choose to not use WhatsApp. I'm saying that you can't expect to receive the same level of information that people organise through groups on WhatsApp. If nobody you know uses it then you aren't missing anything are you?

That's it. I'm not putting up with this shit any more. I'm going to tell my parents who don't have mobiles let alone smart phones and have probably never heard of WhatsApp that I'm not going to contact them and they better get used to being ignored by everyone in.the family from now on because I'm a fucking insane, foot stampy cunt who isn't prepared to accommodate anyone else's needs or lifestyles.

I want to WhatsApp 'USE WHATSAPP OR YOU'RE DEAD TO ME' so hard but the selfish fucks don't even have WhatsApp.

WhatsApp is owned by Meta/Facebook which is renowned for sharing its users’ data. Regardless, I hate large groups where there’s 2 people who could just chat to themselves in a 1-1 chat. If you mute the chat then people get annoyed that you’re not messaging everyday.

I don't think it is unreasonable for someone not to want to use WhatsApp, and although I've never heard privacy as an excuse, maybe they just feel uncomfortable. I might be going against the grain here, but if they don't want to use WhatsApp, I think they should be still included in important family information - it takes seconds to copy and paste and send via messages.

Only reason I'm in a family WhatsApp group is because it is centred around my nan. Once she's gone, I'm out of there.

I want to WhatsApp 'USE WHATSAPP OR YOU'RE DEAD TO ME' so hard but the selfish fucks don't even have WhatsApp.

🤣🤣🤣

Omg between your parent and fucking BERYL, I really despair. People have been saying the world has gone to shit, but I'm only seeing the severity now. Sad times... Sad times

Just phone Beryl FFS.

I suspect this it is pretty insecure and there slots of snooping going on but, unless you're a drug dealer or a spy, who really cares?

Just phone Beryl FFS

Phone Beryl??

On an actual telephone??

Have you lost your mind???

Phone her?? What? Are you actually out of your mind? Phones are not for speaking on! 😉

Actually periodically I get problems with whatapp too, my sis whatsapps me and i dont get her message then if I close whatapp and open it again messages pop up.

It's a well known fact that no family ever got together to celebrate anything before WhatsApp was invented.

I didn't even realise I had a brother until he WhatsApped me in 2013!

Wow, wow, wow hang on now lads... I am all for inviting Beryl right? But nobody needs to phone anyone. That's a bridge too far. We will text Beryl. It'll be fine. Nobody panic 😂

Tbh, no part of going online is 100% safe. What you have to do is decide what risks you’re willing to accept. WhatsApp has end to end encryption, that’s why it’s banned in some authoritarian countries, but it can gather info eg which country you live in, tracking across sites etc.

this!

My parents are pretty fucking old. They don't have smartphones. They don't know what WhatsApp is.

I'm very fond of my parents and so I pick one of the other myriad ways of making sure they're included in family events.

But I'm looking for novel ways to act like a cunt so think I'll take your advice and demand they join a WhatsApp group in future.

Switch to telegram. That was my solution with family members like this. They do have a point, your data is used indeed, you're paying for it with your privacy.

Beryl has a landline so texts come through in robot voice. I tried it during lockdown and she thought the aliens had come but I was only asking her if she wanted anything from Big Tesco