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sambista
Joined: 25 Sep 2004 Posts: 16951 Location: way station of life
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Posted: 11/12/17 8:10 am ::: social media/modern communication-type question for all |
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so most of you guys know i'm living in brasil, and these days almost no one here uses email except for formal or business matters. everyone uses whatsapp (or "zapzap"), apart from the incidious facebook. but to communicate daily and throughout the day, it's whatsapp, even more than cellphone calls. i myself get emails from only three people now who know nothing about whatsapp (tech challenged), out of friends around the world, in europe, asia, south america and the usa, and including an age range of 23 to 82! so it's not a generational thing, i don't think - it's a sign of the times. honestly, my email is 98 percent worthless announcements. whatsapp is the (kinda) new skype, only better.
now, my brother in l.a. says whatsapp isn't that popular in the usa. i'm not sure i believe him - not that i think he's outright lying, but he's not exactly in the mix of hip, happening people.
so i ask you: what is the state of modern communication in the us? what do people use these days to communicate? do they still rely heavily on email? is it true that whatsapp isn't that popular in the us? and what do you guys in other countries use?
i really wanna know, but it's hard getting a handle on it beyond brasil.
_________________ no justice, no peace.
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justintyme
Joined: 08 Jul 2012 Posts: 8407 Location: Northfield, MN
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Posted: 11/12/17 9:16 am ::: |
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No idea what "whatsapp" is.
I use text messaging to communicate with friends and family, or email to do so with students.
I hate Facebook, but do use it and its messenger at times.
_________________ ↑↑↓↓←→←→BA
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Ex-Ref
Joined: 04 Oct 2009 Posts: 8959
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Posted: 11/12/17 11:10 am ::: |
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It kind of depends on who I want to get a message to and how quickly I want it to get there. Also, time of day matters. I'm on a different schedule than most people, so I don't like the thought that I'll send them a text, email, message and their phone goes off in the middle of the night. With so many people dropping land lines, most people take their phones to bed with them.
I don't like the thought that I might disturb their sleep.
(I'm not a big fan of cell phones. Their intrusion into life annoys me. I don't like being somewhere and hearing everyone's conversations. If I'm on a walk on one of the local trails that goes through a more secluded, woodsy area, I want the quiet undisturbed. Then here comes the woman that is too busy talking on her phone to clean up after her dog. She annoys me! Plus, I think people look ridiculous walking and having a conversation with no one. At the gym the other day, and a woman on an elliptical was talking so loud, I could hear every word! So there aren't many instances that I feel that I need immediate contact with someone. That is saved for emergencies.)
I will use email (if I'm home at the computer, it's long, or doesn't need immediate attention).
If I want am in need of an answer quickly (i.e. from my boss), I text because I never know where she might be (usually not at home! Somewhere with her kids ball games or something related).
Sometimes I will use Facebook messages. If that it how people have contacted me previously. Usually my nieces are the ones that I will message. Sometimes my brother or s-i-l.
From what I have observed from others near me, I would say texting is what I see most.
_________________ "Women are judged on their success, men on their potential. It’s time we started believing in the potential of women." —Muffet McGraw
“Thank you for showing the fellas that you've got more balls than them,” Haley said, to cheers from the crowd.
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sambista
Joined: 25 Sep 2004 Posts: 16951 Location: way station of life
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Posted: 11/12/17 11:36 am ::: |
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Ex-Ref wrote: |
(I'm not a big fan of cell phones. Their intrusion into life annoys me. I don't like being somewhere and hearing everyone's conversations. If I'm on a walk on one of the local trails that goes through a more secluded, woodsy area, I want the quiet undisturbed. Then here comes the woman that is too busy talking on her phone to clean up after her dog. She annoys me! Plus, I think people look ridiculous walking and having a conversation with no one. At the gym the other day, and a woman on an elliptical was talking so loud, I could hear every word! So there aren't many instances that I feel that I need immediate contact with someone. That is saved for emergencies.) |
i so agree with you there. just because tech has made it possible, i'm not obliged to be available 24/7!
but just so it's understood, whatsapp is a texting app. my friends with iphones don't use apple's texting app - they use whatsapp. folks with other kinds of phones also use whatsapp. it's an agnostic app. and there's a desktop version, too, if you hate (as i do) texting with those little phone keys. you can control what level of notification you get when someone texts you, and i see no alerts when people text me when i'm busy or sleeping. there isn't much you can't do w/whatsapp: you can text, use emoticons, post a voice message, photos, videos, links, files, what have you. you can make worldwide phone calls. and no charges for any of it, beyond whatever data hit to your phone account. there are whatsapp groups, and i belong to one that has 300+ members all around the world. if rebkell's membership weren't so huge, we'd probably be on whatsapp.
you connect by cellphone numbers. you can add, delete or block people at will.
so to my mind, whatsapp is texting, just from a different source, just to be clear. i've also noticed business cards, at least here, have a business land line, then a whatsapp number. some realtors do business almost exclusively by whatsapp.
anyway, i'm not trying to sell anyone on the app (though you owe it to yourself to check it out). i'm trying to get a sense of awareness of it and its use in the u.s. and other countries/continents.
_________________ no justice, no peace.
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tfan
Joined: 31 May 2010 Posts: 9662
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Posted: 11/12/17 9:39 pm ::: |
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I began using Whatsapp because I had a cellular plan for years that charged me 10 cents for each text (20 cents with picture). Whatsapp was also available on all of the "non big two" phones that I used to use - Nokia Symbian, Blackberry, Blackberry 10, Windows Phone (still use). I got an unlimited plan last summer so I have less incentive to use it now but haven't changed over with the few people I text. I asked my high school age nephew a few years ago if he was on Whatsapp and he said he and his circle of friends used Kik instead (I think they also send regular text messages).
I think the whole rationale for Whatsapp was like how I started - to get around the "per message" charges that used to be much more common. It also probably had/has advantages for international texting. It does offer a little more functionality than the text app. I somehow initiated a call from it one time. I talked to a Whatsapp developer working in California about 8 years ago and he told me that it was more popular outside the United States and I think the reason he gave was due to phone company text charges being higher and/or people being poorer and more concerned with text message text/plan charges. You can use it from your PC web browser now.
I seem to recall having to buy the app but there hasn't been any charge in recent years. Not sure how they make money. I found this article, How Whats App Makes Money and it talks about purchase price and yearly fees as being in the past. Facebook bought it for $19 billion in 2014 and there is speculation they did it not to make money on the app, but to get more data on Facebook users. But you are supposed to be able to stop sharing between the two.
That article mentions something that I remember reading - Whatsapp encrypts your messages in a way that prevents governments from intercepting them and reading them - which the governments are not happy about.
I still use email and would prefer to get/send email on information that I want to save or when it takes many texts to say it.
Last edited by tfan on 11/12/17 10:54 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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GlennMacGrady
Joined: 03 Jan 2005 Posts: 8234 Location: Heisenberg
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Posted: 11/12/17 9:57 pm ::: |
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I've never heard of Whatsapp or ever even heard anyone talking about it until this thread.
I use email for 99% of my electronic communication and texting on a phone for the other 1%. Only one person in my family texts and I don't know many people who do, so it's a fairly useless form of actual information exchange for me.
I read about 95% of my emails on my laptop and about 5% on my phone. I almost never send emails by phone because typing them on such a small instrument is much too slow and clumsy for me.
Plus, I'm not the kind of person who walks around with my cell phone turned on all the time. Cell phones are for my occasional convenience, not for yours.
It was different when I was still working, as a cell phone for voice talk was then a business tool. I never texted for work or for any reason or purpose, or with any person, until two years ago. Email, on the other hand, was indispensable for work and remains so now in retirement. |
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Howee
Joined: 27 Nov 2009 Posts: 15752 Location: OREGON (in my heart)
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Posted: 11/12/17 10:49 pm ::: |
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ALL my communications these days are of a personal (non-work) nature, and mostly with the 40+ demographic.
Preferred communication: same room as the person
Choice #2: Telephone conversation
Choice #3: Skype
Choice #4: e-mail
Choice #5: text
(unless it's urgent/need response in a hurry and #1/#2 aren't options--then? it's #1, LOL)
I've heard of Whatsapp, and will now investigate.
Howee, the Tech Luddite.
_________________ Oregon: Go Ducks!
"Inévitablement, les canards voleront"
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Genero36
Joined: 24 Apr 2005 Posts: 11188
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Posted: 11/13/17 12:23 am ::: |
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Ex-Ref wrote: |
Their intrusion into life annoys me. I don't like being somewhere and hearing everyone's conversations. If I'm on a walk on one of the local trails that goes through a more secluded, woodsy area, I want the quiet undisturbed. Then here comes the woman that is too busy talking on her phone to clean up after her dog. She annoys me! Plus, I think people look ridiculous walking and having a conversation with no one. At the gym the other day, and a woman on an elliptical was talking so loud, I could hear every word! So there aren't many instances that I feel that I need immediate contact with someone. That is saved for emergencies.) |
Your whole entire post is pretty much me. Especially, the above. To add, what is so damn important that you are reading from your phone while crossing the street? Why are people this stupid???
_________________ I'm all for the separation of church and hate.
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sambista
Joined: 25 Sep 2004 Posts: 16951 Location: way station of life
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Posted: 11/13/17 7:03 am ::: |
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thanks, everyone, especially tfan. really good info. maybe it's true that whatsapp is more popular outside the u.s., and for the reason you cited. i just find it more accessible for all the people you want to communicate with than even iphone messaging. in fact, i just learned yesterday that you could do video calls (like facetime) with it.
and if i couldn't use it from my laptop, i wouldn't use it. no way will i text from my phone unless i absolutely have to.
anybody else, anywhere else?
p.s. whatsapp has also become my lifeline because of the groups of people i hang with and their insistence that all news go through that app. for example, i take a music class, and my teacher texts all her notes to the group via whatsapp. we also use our phones to capture the teacher playing whatever new thing we learned in class, then someone volunteers to share the video with everyone on whatsapp. if i went to class without that whatsapp connection, i'd have no idea what was going on! i'm also part of a whatsapp group of jazz lovers, where people share recordings that can be downloaded from the app. so i'm fascinated about the use/non-use of whatsapp and wonder what other app(s) americans use for these group cyber meetups - if that happens at all.
_________________ no justice, no peace.
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Luuuc #NATC
Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 21948
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sambista
Joined: 25 Sep 2004 Posts: 16951 Location: way station of life
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Ay Mate
Joined: 12 Nov 2016 Posts: 1280
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Posted: 11/13/17 7:39 am ::: |
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Never heard of WhatsApp. I email, text and use facebook to communicate with friends/family. I never talk on the phone unless I have to call a business or service.
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sambista
Joined: 25 Sep 2004 Posts: 16951 Location: way station of life
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Posted: 11/13/17 7:43 am ::: |
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the more i read, the more i'm stunned. i really must be in a foreign bubble. i don't know anyone who doesn't know what whatsapp is. i have at least 10 friends who're older than 60 who use whatsapp almost exclusively, but they all use the desktop version, not from their phones (you can use both alternately, simultaneously). that tells me it's easier than email for them.
_________________ no justice, no peace.
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pilight
Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 66993 Location: Where the action is
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Luuuc #NATC
Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 21948
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Posted: 11/13/17 7:58 am ::: |
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sambista wrote: |
Luuuc wrote: |
I've been using WhatsApp for a few years now. For me it basically replaced Viber. It's only semi popular in Australia ("we" are generally very i-centric down here ) but is very big through Asia. |
i had a feeling you used it.
yeah, this is how i stay connected to my friends in china and europe, and there's something satisfying about it being more "real time," even when your daytime is someone else's middle of the night. of course, it helps that people are addicted to their phones and respond to texts more immediately than they do their email.
but there's one thing that sticks out with me, a reason for this (type of) app and a reason to believe email is the new snail mail: someone sends you an email and you wanna say thanks, or at least acknowledge it. how stupid does it feel, and what a waste all around, to send an email reply that only says "thanks" or "ok"? |
Yeah, emails for personal communications are pretty rare now.
And I definitely agree about the "Thanks" email. I file away all my work emails, but those just get deleted.
pilight wrote: |
Luuuc wrote: |
I've been using WhatsApp for a few years now. For me it basically replaced Viber. It's only semi popular in Australia ("we" are generally very i-centric down here ) but is very big through Asia. |
Isn't it banned in China? |
Dunno.
When I say Asia I usually mean "Asia other than China", since China is like a whole world of its own.
_________________ Thanks for calling. I wait all night for calls like these.
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sambista
Joined: 25 Sep 2004 Posts: 16951 Location: way station of life
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jammerbirdi
Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 21046
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Posted: 11/13/17 9:30 am ::: |
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I’ve heard of WhatsApp for quite a while, I think. Could, however, only have been within the last year or so. I guess the answer though is that we’re all in a state of flux in this. We’re really at the mercy of what other people are using to contact us. I want to talk to the OP in this thread what’d I do? Rebkell’s PM.
So as just a survey of what’s the current reality for me, thinking as objectively and as current as I can somehow think. In semi-order.
I get texts, but often they are to initiate a cell phone call.
Email is still a significant mode of communication, actually this should be before texts. Facebook and it’s annoying Messenger wing. I am communicated with by a cousin via Twitter PMs. Keep a land line and have had the same phone # since 1987.
I am, by nature, an avoider of being connected with. If I want something from you then yeah. But I pretty much have the rep with friends and family of not answering the phone, texts, etc. The fucking doorbell. So I’m not not all that hot to take on new modes of communication. We’ve just been there and done all that, haven’t we? Remember how excited we were with gmail, bista? We were like, did you get your free invite? Then, it was, your free ten invites for friends, which we passed to each other. i think it was me you and Reb.
And then there’s the like, uh, okay, here we are. So what? lol.
Anyway. By the way, keep an eye out for my PM later today.
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Queenie
Joined: 18 Nov 2004 Posts: 18042 Location: Queens
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Posted: 11/13/17 9:50 am ::: |
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Communicating with family and friends? Phone, text, e-mail, and occasionally wandering up to the door and going, "I have chocolate, wanna hang?"
I've heard of WhatsApp- there's a Pokemon Go group in Astoria that uses it, but I never got the hang of it. I've used the chat program Discord, and I like that one. Twitter's also useful, though I mostly use the function where DMs are sent as text messages.
Facebook is the devil.
(I too loathe the "thanks!" e-mail; I try to get around it by closing any e-mail where I'm asking for something with "thanks".)
_________________ Ardent believer in the separation of church and stadium.
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sambista
Joined: 25 Sep 2004 Posts: 16951 Location: way station of life
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Posted: 11/13/17 2:39 pm ::: |
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jammerbirdi wrote: |
I’ve heard of WhatsApp for quite a while, I think. Could, however, only have been within the last year or so. I guess the answer though is that we’re all in a state of flux in this. We’re really at the mercy of what other people are using to contact us. I want to talk to the OP in this thread what’d I do? Rebkell’s PM.
So as just a survey of what’s the current reality for me, thinking as objectively and as current as I can somehow think. In semi-order.
I get texts, but often they are to initiate a cell phone call.
Email is still a significant mode of communication, actually this should be before texts. Facebook and it’s annoying Messenger wing. I am communicated with by a cousin via Twitter PMs. Keep a land line and have had the same phone # since 1987.
I am, by nature, an avoider of being connected with. If I want something from you then yeah. But I pretty much have the rep with friends and family of not answering the phone, texts, etc. The fucking doorbell. So I’m not not all that hot to take on new modes of communication. We’ve just been there and done all that, haven’t we? Remember how excited we were with gmail, bista? We were like, did you get your free invite? Then, it was, your free ten invites for friends, which we passed to each other. i think it was me you and Reb.
And then there’s the like, uh, okay, here we are. So what? lol.
Anyway. By the way, keep an eye out for my PM later today. |
i still have a land line, too, mostly for people in the states in case of emergency and when brasilians call and leave messages in hyperspeed with their hyperslang; that way, i can play back the messages as many times as needed to understand wtf.
yeah, i remember the dawn of gmail, and i still love it. it's the only email i'll write in a field online, so whatever drivel is bebotted from it doesn't clog up my now nearly dormant real email account.
and i agree completely that we're in a state of flux. but the reason i posted this question was to get straight in my head what's true so far. up to now, i thought the whole world was on whatsapp.
now that i think of it, if i were back in nyc and there was(/is) still a crew attending the liberty games, i would vehemently insist on a liberty whatsapp group. folks already post on reb's during the games. just imagine how easy, instantaneous and fun it would be for liberty fans sitting in different sections to text one another during the games. and the posts would automatically be current, instead of refreshing a reb page every moment. oh, yeah - there are definite benefits to this app. never got into twitter, i refuse to let evil facebook control me or waste my time, and i tell friends to not message me there. i also tell them i don't keep my cellphone at the ready all hours of the day; i'll respond in due time. but for keeping up with goings-on and connecting with friends, i couldn't live without whatsapp.
_________________ no justice, no peace.
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jammerbirdi
Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 21046
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Posted: 11/13/17 6:35 pm ::: |
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Hmm. Groups. That does sound way beyond useful. Almost like a rolling Rebkell’s, but, of course, the groups and purposes for groups is limitless. Now if I only had friends.
Regarding gmail. I ditched, after like forever, the default mail app for IOS and replaced it with gmail’s app. About four months ago. It allows you to group select emails and mark them as spam. I can see absolutly no advantage whatsoever of using the gmail app other than that. It partitions all of your email accounts instead of merging them into one ‘all inboxes’ option like the default app. It then breaks down each of your email accounts inboxes further into ‘primary,’ ‘social,’ and, ‘promotions’ and then, to boot, sends you sort of the in app can’t escape them or mark them as spam ads from whomever gmail has sold advertising to.
So I moved the gmail app off the bottom four primary ‘systemy’ apps panel and went back to the default system mail app. I don’t recommend the gmail app at all but keeping it will allow me to mark as spam email traffic that I don’t want. And it DOES really work well for that. Almost too well. Anyway.
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HistoryWomensBasketball
Joined: 30 Mar 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: CT
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Posted: 11/14/17 6:11 am ::: |
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I have heard of it, but do not have it.
Email for a lot of communication but sad to say more people contact me through facebook and messanger which I do not care for except for looking at vacation pictures etc.
I do have a fb page for my book. so so results.
LinkedIn is big for me and they have a messaging app within.
Of course, some texting but mostly with family. |
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sambista
Joined: 25 Sep 2004 Posts: 16951 Location: way station of life
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Posted: 11/14/17 8:00 am ::: |
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so forgive me for this stupid question: when you guys talk about "texting" family and friends, are you talking about whatever branded texting app is on your phone by default, whether it's an iphone, android, etc.? and does that allow you to "text" anyone with other platformed devices? and for free? i've been out of the country for seven years, so i really don't know.
_________________ no justice, no peace.
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sambista
Joined: 25 Sep 2004 Posts: 16951 Location: way station of life
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Posted: 11/14/17 8:02 am ::: |
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HistoryWomensBasketball wrote: |
LinkedIn is big for me and they have a messaging app within. |
i agree - linkedin is a must if you're working or have a business or product.
_________________ no justice, no peace.
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jammerbirdi
Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 21046
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Posted: 11/14/17 8:35 am ::: |
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sambista wrote: |
so forgive me for this stupid question: when you guys talk about "texting" family and friends, are you talking about whatever branded texting app is on your phone by default, whether it's an iphone, android, etc.? and does that allow you to "text" anyone with other platformed devices? and for free? i've been out of the country for seven years, so i really don't know. |
Yes. I just use the default iOS green ‘Messages’ app. I text with both iPhone and non-iPhone users. I’m not sure if I have unlimited texting or not but if I don’t, it wouldn’t matter because I don’t text anywhere near enough to exceed whatever deal I might have. I really don’t like texting at all. I try as much as possible to hit the mic icon and speak my texts. The whole thing really is painful, IMO. There’s no way you can ever cover the ground in texting that you can in a phone conversation, which I also hate, by the way. But for fast exchanges of timely information or coordinating things, texting is certainly the fastest and most efficient.
Her: Hey, I have Clippers tickets for tonight!
Me: Oh fuck no.
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Luuuc #NATC
Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 21948
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