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> In my country WhatsApp is used for everything from talking to friends through setting up a date with your hairdresser to group activities like school parents

> In my country WhatsApp is used for everything from talking to friends through setting up a date with your hairdresser to group activities like school parents groups. Presumably because they would like to be able to set up a date with their hairdresser and participate in parents groups. Maybe they could convince their friends to switch, but also maybe not. This is why there is a call for government intervention: a single person faces an enormous social cost for boycotting FB properties, but the government can coordinate either a change on Facebook’s end or a simultaneous changeover to other services.

tw25656993 6y ago
> a single person faces an enormous social cost for boycotting FB properties I'm not clear on how to quantify "enormous". Many people don't use facebook and still manage to make appointments and lead fulfilling social lives. That said, it is clear that for many people the "social cost" is larger than the "facebook evil cost", even for people demanding government intervention. I guess for those people, the cost for demanding politicians Do Something is even less.
- reaperducer 6y ago
  I'm not clear on how to quantify "enormous". Many people don't use facebook and still manage to make appointments and lead fulfilling social lives. It depends a lot on your country or region. Your life is different from other people's lives. In my country, decoupling from Facebook is pretty easy. Google, less so, but doable. In some countries, decoupling from certain apps or ecosystems will leave you pretty much stranded.
young_unixer 6y ago
> Presumably because they would like to be able to set up a date with their hairdresser and participate in parents groups. That's a problem, but it's their problem. Having a problem doesn't justify coercing others (in this case, Facebook) to solve it for them. It's OK if we want to solve those problems for them, but it's not OK to force someone else to solve them.
livre 6y ago
It is sometimes even worse than that, my doctor appointments have to go through WhatsApp too. I don't like WhatsApp but I have no choice when my health depends on it.

tw25656993 6y ago

> a single person faces an enormous social cost for boycotting FB properties I'm not clear on how to quantify "enormous". Many people don't use facebook and still manage to make appointments and lead fulfilling social lives. That said, it is clear that for many people the "social cost" is larger than the "facebook evil cost", even for people demanding government intervention. I guess for those people, the cost for demanding politicians Do Something is even less.

reaperducer 6y ago
I'm not clear on how to quantify "enormous". Many people don't use facebook and still manage to make appointments and lead fulfilling social lives. It depends a lot on your country or region. Your life is different from other people's lives. In my country, decoupling from Facebook is pretty easy. Google, less so, but doable. In some countries, decoupling from certain apps or ecosystems will leave you pretty much stranded.

young_unixer 6y ago

> Presumably because they would like to be able to set up a date with their hairdresser and participate in parents groups. That's a problem, but it's their problem. Having a problem doesn't justify coercing others (in this case, Facebook) to solve it for them. It's OK if we want to solve those problems for them, but it's not OK to force someone else to solve them.

livre 6y ago

It is sometimes even worse than that, my doctor appointments have to go through WhatsApp too. I don't like WhatsApp but I have no choice when my health depends on it.