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>Using Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, etc. is optional. Nobody has to use these platforms. Nobody has to use these platforms, unless everyone else is using thes

>Using Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, etc. is optional. Nobody has to use these platforms. Nobody has to use these platforms, unless everyone else is using these platforms. Have you ever been that one person who is being regularly invited to an event but you aren't in a Messenger or Whatsapp group to receive it? Pretty soon you stop receiving invitations. This is actually worse in the case of Whatsapp outside America, since it's used more often than it should for business, and if you don't make yourself accessible for business, you don't eat. >If you want your messages encrypted, do it yourself. I've been "that guy" trying to tell others about PGP. I still get jokes about acting like I'm hiding from the FBI occasionally, even in this age where privacy is mainstream enough where I can point them to a Joe Rogan podcast featuring Edward Snowden. People care, but it has to be frictionless.

ekianjo 6y ago
> Nobody has to use these platforms, unless everyone else is using these platforms. No, even if everybody else is using those platforms, it does not force you in anyway to use them. It's still always up to you.
- imgabe 6y ago
  Sure, in the way no one is "forcing" you to use email or a phone. You can opt out if you don't mind being unemployed and alone.
  - ekianjo 6y ago
    I don't think NOT having a facebook account has ever prevented anyone from getting a job. Rather the opposite, actually.
    - redis_mlc 6y ago
      > I don't think NOT having a facebook account has ever prevented anyone from getting a job. Rather the opposite, actually. Well, you're wrong. I've had interviewers ask why I host my own blog instead of using Facebook, and said it was very unusual that they couldn't check out my social background. And Craiglist rental ads often screen applicants using social media, usually Facebook.
      - ekianjo 6y ago
        > Well, you're wrong. I've had interviewers ask why I host my own blog instead of using Facebook, and said it was very unusual that they couldn't check out my social background. Well, why would an employer need to check your social background? They should care about your skills more than anything else.
        vincnetas 6y ago
        Yes. You can go and try explain this to them. Good luck.
        psychoslave 6y ago
        Well I can be the most technically skilled of my domain, and yet be a total bastard that would bring nothing but trouble in whatever team I would join. Thus said, a call to previous employers should do the trick.
        Maha-pudma 6y ago
        How is viewing a Facebook profile in the control of that total bastard a good way of determining whether they should be given a job? Personally I'm on no social network, on purpose. I've never had any issues. If it was an issue for an employer that I didn't have a Facebook account that their issue not mine.
        ben_w 6y ago
        > Thus said, a call to previous employers should do the trick. I don’t know what it’s like where you are (or what it’s like where I am now), but in the U.K. references from a previous employer are limited to confirming that a person worked at a place between specific dates. This is because everyone gets legal advice warning they may be sued for libel if they either say anything negative or have a policy of saying nothing only for bad employees. I don’t know how likely the scenario is, but everywhere I’ve worked before I left the U.K. shared that policy and that reasons.
        JumpCrisscross 6y ago
- bmarquez 6y ago
  In theory, you're right. In actuality, unless you have the clout to make others jump through your hoops to contact you, they won't. Example: Donald Knuth doesn't use email. This works fine for him because of his reputation, but if I were to quit email and social networks, I'm not influential enough that people would send me snail mail.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  And you just replied to a comment explaining what happens if you don’t do those things, so you haven’t really added anything new to the conversation but a trite “nobody is forcing you” which was already the premise when the parent comment started.

ekianjo 6y ago

> Nobody has to use these platforms, unless everyone else is using these platforms. No, even if everybody else is using those platforms, it does not force you in anyway to use them. It's still always up to you.

imgabe 6y ago
Sure, in the way no one is "forcing" you to use email or a phone. You can opt out if you don't mind being unemployed and alone.
- ekianjo 6y ago
  I don't think NOT having a facebook account has ever prevented anyone from getting a job. Rather the opposite, actually.
  - redis_mlc 6y ago
    > I don't think NOT having a facebook account has ever prevented anyone from getting a job. Rather the opposite, actually. Well, you're wrong. I've had interviewers ask why I host my own blog instead of using Facebook, and said it was very unusual that they couldn't check out my social background. And Craiglist rental ads often screen applicants using social media, usually Facebook.
    - ekianjo 6y ago
      > Well, you're wrong. I've had interviewers ask why I host my own blog instead of using Facebook, and said it was very unusual that they couldn't check out my social background. Well, why would an employer need to check your social background? They should care about your skills more than anything else.
      - vincnetas 6y ago
        Yes. You can go and try explain this to them. Good luck.
      - psychoslave 6y ago
        Well I can be the most technically skilled of my domain, and yet be a total bastard that would bring nothing but trouble in whatever team I would join. Thus said, a call to previous employers should do the trick.
        Maha-pudma 6y ago
        How is viewing a Facebook profile in the control of that total bastard a good way of determining whether they should be given a job? Personally I'm on no social network, on purpose. I've never had any issues. If it was an issue for an employer that I didn't have a Facebook account that their issue not mine.
        ben_w 6y ago
        > Thus said, a call to previous employers should do the trick. I don’t know what it’s like where you are (or what it’s like where I am now), but in the U.K. references from a previous employer are limited to confirming that a person worked at a place between specific dates. This is because everyone gets legal advice warning they may be sued for libel if they either say anything negative or have a policy of saying nothing only for bad employees. I don’t know how likely the scenario is, but everywhere I’ve worked before I left the U.K. shared that policy and that reasons.
      - JumpCrisscross 6y ago
bmarquez 6y ago
In theory, you're right. In actuality, unless you have the clout to make others jump through your hoops to contact you, they won't. Example: Donald Knuth doesn't use email. This works fine for him because of his reputation, but if I were to quit email and social networks, I'm not influential enough that people would send me snail mail.
saagarjha 6y ago
And you just replied to a comment explaining what happens if you don’t do those things, so you haven’t really added anything new to the conversation but a trite “nobody is forcing you” which was already the premise when the parent comment started.