[asingh1977]

I would love to permanently delete WA from my phone. The problem is: it is to entrenched in all walks of life. Any message / communication which has to be sent, the recipient wants it on WA. Be it a shopkeeper sending you something, a vendor wanting an address, NEFT details, you name it. Far from everything, the biggest bane of WA is the group -- and that it cannot be permanently archived. Once a new message comes in, it comes to the top of the queue. It is the single most annoying factor in WA. People take offense if removed or if someone exits a group.

I was literally forced by my management (unofficially) to join the office WA group. It found it just pure SPAM, and being compelled to receive it. Later on I exited the group. Likewise, I exited a family group also: now the ADMIN actually has stopped talking to me. Weird.

People abuse, SPAM, fear monger, pass on forwards, and just do not control what they are sending. Many times I have seen pr0n images / gifs forwarded "sorry by mistake". Is that not sickening. How can people be so naive and dumb? Shocks me. WA has become: SMS+Mail+FB+Twitter; all in one. Most do not have a handle on what they are up to.

WA = nuisance -- overall.

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by asingh1977

I was literally forced by my management (unofficially) to join the office WA group. It found it just pure SPAM, and being compelled to receive it. Later on I exited the group. Likewise, I exited a family group also: now the ADMIN actually has stopped talking to me. Weird.

People abuse, SPAM, fear monger, pass on forwards, and just do not control what they are sending. Many times I have seen pr0n images / gifs forwarded "sorry by mistake". Is that not sickening. How can people be so naive and dumb? Shocks me. WA has become: SMS+Mail+FB+Twitter; all in one. Most do not have a handle on what they are up to.

WA = nuisance -- overall.

Stop auto download of media. Big relief it is. Mute the group for a year. Like you said people are quick to take offence and you can't have such petty things affect your work situation.

As for dumbness and naivety you know what someone said:
""Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.""

[asingh1977]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

Stop auto download of media. Big relief it is. Mute the group for a year. Like you said people are quick to take offence and you can't have such petty things affect your work situation.

As for dumbness and naivety you know what someone said:
""Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.""

Even on MUTE + Archive, the group comes to the top, but it is a workaround, yea. At least on my phone, Lumia. Being forced to join a group, or being added to one without telling is not good.

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by asingh1977

Being forced to join a group, or being added to one without telling is not good.

Yes that was one of the common issues with Whatsapp but yet that was what made it popular and widespread.

[Ithaca]

I get lot of fake & doctored posts on WA. When I take some trouble to verify & post the authentic news, some group members take offence because it does not subscribe to their point of view. Be it politics, economy or religion related.

Sometime I wonder if these click bait news articles are doing a disservice to us by dumbing us down since most people would not take the time to authenticate them.

Sometimes technology at our finger tips is a double edged sword.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

Did you happen to watch Simon Sinek's video about Millenials?

Some of the points he mentions are pretty genuine.

@deathwalker, thank you for pointing me to this. Most sensible talk on social media I've listened to. Have sent to many young folks in the extended family.

Personally I am not on WA or FB - never have been.

[Ford5]

I've managed to log off WA. It's peaceful. I don't need mass media bombarding me anymore and diverting/stealing away my thinking/processing power even for a few minutes with those countless and pointless video/text forwards having no bearing on our lives. Mostly political nonsense. There's facebook for that when i want to waste time on desktop, not mobile

SMS works just fine and reaches people instantly.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Ford5

I've managed to log off WA. It's peaceful. I don't need mass media bombarding me anymore and diverting/stealing away my thinking/processing power ...

Well, to me it remains a messaging app. a muli-media messaging app, I admit: I use it for exchanging photos etc as well as text, but I do not use it as "social media."

I belong to just one group, and that is not very busy. But even for that, I found one thing helps, and, if people have not thought of it already, this is it: mute the group. You will not be bothered with continuous message tones. You can catch up as and when it suits you.

One could extend this to friends too, if they are over chatty (but unlikely to send urgent stuff) or continually forwarding stuff. Don't be disturbed: catch up when you feel like it.

This way, you use Whatsapp, rather than letting it use you.

[naturaldisaster]

My two cents. I find WA to be a great communications and info sharing tool. The only problem i have is the ability for anyone to save your number and then just be able to PM you. Its OK to have unknowns in a WA Group, but i think PMs should not be allowed unless you both have each other's number saved.

That would cut off all the spamming and bogus messages instantly. Want to connect with someone you know? Do it the old fashion way!

[Ford5]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

This way, you use Whatsapp, rather than letting it use you.

Have been on WhatsApp since beta days and done whatever possible from muting to straight away clearing chat history if I know for sure that it's not important.

Crossed that bridge & my dopamine levels always get the better of me & i'm guilty of trespassing So i got the better of my dopamines and bid adieu to WA.

Sure it's down to me and not everybody else may experience raging pre-frontal cortex activity when they get pinged.

[mayankk]

Has anyone tried to downsize their tech connectivity? To somewhat closer to the early part of the last decade.
What I was thinking of doing was to buy a new 4g t9 keypad fone. This one is different because it has 4g, wifi hotspot, and whatsapp.
Nominal messages on whatsapp can be sent, as per the splurge, though I dont know about support.
Along with it, I was thinking of keeping a 7-9" tab. This would effectively insulate me from the constant barrage of social media, while also limiting killing-time exercises online.

So, has anyone done this?

[blackwasp]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

This way, you use Whatsapp, rather than letting it use you.

+1

Originally Posted by Ford5

I've managed to log off WA. It's peaceful.

SMS works just fine and reaches people instantly.

Great. Had tried this sometime back and its nice. But there should be a way to hide the group chats from the individual ones. There are just too many groups eating up memory, space and data. I don't mind the groups that are quiet, but the constant barrage of spam is too much to handle.

Originally Posted by mayankk

So, has anyone done this?

You don't need a basic phone to achieve this. Just uninstall the apps from your smartphone. Why should you lose of on the other features (camera, call quality, display etc) of the phone just because you want to get away from social media? In case of a tab, I will recommend you to get one with a sim card slot. Drawback - Whats App cant be installed on most tabs.

My dad uses 2 phones (iPhone 5s and Moto E4) - with numbers A and B. A is the number given out to all. But this number is registered to Whats App on the Moto E4. Most of the times he uses only the iPhone and leaves the Whatsapp phone at home. Also, E4 has the larger display (and battery) which is a boon for him to check mails on the go. Both phones have data connections.

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

...but the constant barrage of spam is too much to handle.

Where do WhatsApp spams originate from and where do they go? A look at this forward (from WhatsApp, where else ) tells me that useless messages can neither be created nor destroyed. They can only be transferred from one phone to another!


Picture ©: Unknown

[balechaparka]

Originally Posted by mayankk

Has anyone tried to downsize their tech connectivity? To somewhat closer to the early part of the last decade.
What I was thinking of doing was to buy a new 4g t9 keypad fone. This one is different because it has 4g, wifi hotspot, and whatsapp.
Nominal messages on whatsapp can be sent, as per the splurge, though I dont know about support.
Along with it, I was thinking of keeping a 7-9" tab. This would effectively insulate me from the constant barrage of social media, while also limiting killing-time exercises online.

So, has anyone done this?

I was using Nubia Z9 mini phone for my WhatApp application.It got spoiled on May 2017.Tried to repair, but too costly, so right now using basic Motorola defy mini (8 years old ) which is having less memory.
For last 7 months I am not using WhatsApp and I am spending more quality time with other activities like cycling(evening) ,helping my son to do homework.Now I feel more relaxed.No need to worry about nonfictions.By the way I used to get 95 % of junk messages from different groups .

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Where do WhatsApp spams originate from and where do they go? A look at this forward (from WhatsApp, where else ) tells me that useless messages can neither be created nor destroyed. They can only be transferred from one phone to another!

Love it!

As to who creates, or mutates, this garbage about earthquakes and tsunamis and eagles attacking airplanes... some very peculiar, possibly mentally sick people who spend their time inventing stuff that will worry and frighten others. It then circulates among the gullible, who want to spread the worry and fear further. Really, it is a sick phenomenon.

Thankfully, most of the originators are not very clever at their task, and their idiocy can be seen through quite easily. Usually.