I believe in an open internet, FOSS, privacy by default, etc. I migrated away from Google by self-hosting Nextcloud. I prefer messaging apps like Molly, SimpleX, Threema, Matrix, etc. over standard SMS. I love the Fediverse (Lemmy, Mastodon, etc.).

But everyone I live with and everyone I know simply refuses to take part. I can’t interact with them socially because they’re all on Facebook. I can’t communicate with them because they all use group texts for SMS/RCS. I feel like I’m living in a different part of the world and am completely disconnected from everything that’s going on around me (with the people I want to interact).

My question is: does anyone else experience this, and how do you reconcile it? I want to share photos and clever posts with my family but they aren’t on the Fediverse. I want to communicate securely with them but they only want to SMS. I want to share documents but they only use Google Docs.

There are people I’ve met on the Fediverse and through some secure messaging apps with whom I’ve struck up a rapport, but these are still (predominately) strangers, and I’d really like to involve the people I care about in these exciting new times. They just wont participate.

I feel like I’ve invited everyone in my family to go on a great, grand vacation away and I’m the only one who’s packed.

  • @pathief
    12•1 year ago

    I’ve been on both sides of this table. Yes, I wish people would move away from WhatsApp but that’s not going to happen. They’re not going to even make an effort to begin to understand Signal just to talk to me. I could just not use WhatsApp and use Signal to talk to myself, that’d be fun.

    I understand their frustration as well, people already have too many message apps already. WhatsApp, telegram, hangouts, SMS, Slack, Discord… When asked to install a new app they are naturally reluctant to install yet another messaging app just to talk to me and only me. I too have that one friend who bugs me every couple of months to install the new cool message app that is going around. Currently that SimpleX, wonder what comes next.

      • @[email protected]English
        2•1 year ago

        Haven’t googled it yet but my bet is crypto.

        EDIT: glad to be wrong. Looks like Tor but for chat. Looks quite cool, but considering I couldn’t even get the friend who hosts my Matrix homeserver to stick with Matrix, my hopes aren’t high for getting a chance to play around with it

        • @[email protected]
          1•1 year ago

          Ah yeah, I don’t see that happening either because there is somewhat of a learning curve for folks who have never done that kind of thing before, and it’s unlikely grandma would be ready to make the swap.