Why Do People Still Text
-
My update since I now live in a country that is, for all intents and purposes, text free.
Life in Central America really highlights how much I don't text. Someone asked me last week about my stance on texting, assuming that I'd given up and embraced it in the fourteen years since he and I had first discussed how poor of a platform it is. But if anything, it's the opposite. I truly avoid it at a whole new level.
First, I routinely don't keep my phone with me during the work day and I have nothing that shows me texts on my desktop or alerts me if they come in. If I am getting a text via 2FA I know to go grab the phone. If someone is just texting me instead of using a secure messaging app that works on my desktop (everything but texting does work there now that WhatsApp uses the desktop, too) or email then they don't know me and aren't taking their messaging choices very seriously. If they don't care, why would I?
Second, often my phone dies during the day. I don't charge it at my desk. So if it is off, only things that work when my phone is off will get to me.
Third, while my Internet is super strong here, my cell phone signal is not. I live in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. If I am out and about there is a lot of coverage gaps. So texting isn't very reliable for me even if I am actively looking at it.
Four, Tmobile totally killed my Android phone a few weeks ago and it really highlighted how terrible it would be if I had had a dependency on texting to communicate. Luckily because I don't, I was only inconvenienced and still able to function. All my conversations continued.
Five, while SMS within the US has gotten a lot faster than when I used to test it years ago, messages to other places still take forever. Routinely an MMS message to a friend in Belgium would take three hours to send, and untold time to be delivered. Carrying on a conversation was useless. So by the time I get a text, typically we would have already worked around it.
Six, texting isn't free here and texting between carriers is not open. No one does it. No one. I've not seen a single text sent or received by anyone in six months. It's a totally old, dead technology here. Everyone is on encrypted, modern messaging apps and has been for many years... at least six years because it was like this here in 2015, too. Even phone calls are essentially dead here. People call on things like WhatsApp because it is free and works on any connection.
-
I'm old school.
Personally, phones are for my convenience. If I am doing anything at all, the phone goes unanswered.
As a general rule, only my family and closest friends have my cell number.For work, I believe the only way to communicate with our clients is by voice. I don't look at my cellphone or e-mail very often unless I am specifically working with some and e-mail is where the conversation ended up. For example, e-mail is usually good when working with people who have very heavy accents, or their written english is better than their spoken english.
I guess I would get along just fine in a small ocean front village in Central America!
-
@jasgot said in Why Do People Still Text:
I'm old school.
Personally, phones are for my convenience. If I am doing anything at all, the phone goes unanswered.
As a general rule, only my family and closest friends have my cell number.For work, I believe the only way to communicate with our clients is by voice. I don't look at my cellphone or e-mail very often unless I am specifically working with some and e-mail is where the conversation ended up. For example, e-mail is usually good when working with people who have very heavy accents, or their written english is better than their spoken english.
I guess I would get along just fine in a small ocean front village in Central America!
This isn't exactly the same as what Scott is saying.
You're basically saying - I only accept phone calls, or someone comes and physically finds me.
Scott is saying - why are people using old outdated unknown to be unreliable communications methods? And while people like Scott are in the sever minority (in the USA at least - not keeping phone near by, etc) he's definitely not alone in this.
-
Why do people still text? At least in the US? Because it works for them.
If it didn't, they would move onto something that worked better.Most people don't give two shits about privacy or security - especially if it brings the tiniest amount of friction to their lives.
Unlike Scott - the masses do keep their phones near them and charged, at least near enough that other solutions don't present themselves as a much more reliable communication channel.
Cost - Scott mentioned the other side of this, in the US, SMSing in basically included in all plans - no cost difference, therefore no friction/reason to find another solution.
Side note - I wouldn't be surprised one bit today if the US Gov't was subsidizing the costs of SMS/MMS so that people stay on the platform allowing them to more easily monitor all of those messages.Scott has shown that places like the third world, where things like SMS isn't included, yet data is data (and clearly not so expensive to drive people away) so people moved to solutions that didn't cost them beyond what they were already paying? I'm curious - do those plans there include a specific amount of data for a flat rate? Or is data unlimited like on so many plans in the US now?
-
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
Why do people still text? At least in the US? Because it works for them.
My argument is that it doesn't, but they don't realize all of the problems that they are having and just accept it not working well. Much like how businesses say "it worked for me" when, if you do a post mortem, you discover that it didn't.
People use it despite it not meeting their needs or not meeting them well.
-
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
Unlike Scott - the masses do keep their phones near them and charged, at least near enough that other solutions don't present themselves as a much more reliable communication channel.
Yes, in a great effort to make things work that are obtuse, complicated and unreliable so that they, through huge effort of things "not working" can cling to antiquated technologies.
Why keep phones next to you when you are at a computer with a nice keyboard? That's some seriously weird effort just to use phone-only technologies as if it is the 1980s.
-
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
Cost - Scott mentioned the other side of this, in the US, SMSing in basically included in all plans - no cost difference, therefore no friction/reason to find another solution.
It wasn't for a long time. And while it is "included" in most other countries, too, it's not free between users. US only works because it's a single, enormous market. It's an exception, not a rule.
-
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
I'm curious - do those plans there include a specific amount of data for a flat rate? Or is data unlimited like on so many plans in the US now?
In places like Nicaragua, things like WhatsApp and Telegram don't use your data rate. So it's unlimited as long as you have a phone. Unlimited calls, messages, videos, pictures, file transfers, etc. All in one place. All with huge bandwidth. All at the minimum price.
Using anything other than those protocols means using multiple tools, losing security, using data rates or SMS rates, losing interoperability... all at great effort.
Just like in the US, sending pictures, files, videos, making video calls... none of that works or works reliably over SMS. We have customers in the US try to use texting regularly and it creates so much work because they are always trying files too large, files that get compressed and are unusable, file types are not supported, can't do real time video, etc.
Texting isn't "working" for most people. It's a combination of people willing to do a lot of work to pretend it's working for them (the hipster complex) and confusion as people think they are texting often when they are not.
-
@scottalanmiller said in Why Do People Still Text:
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
Unlike Scott - the masses do keep their phones near them and charged, at least near enough that other solutions don't present themselves as a much more reliable communication channel.
Yes, in a great effort to make things work that are obtuse, complicated and unreliable so that they, through huge effort of things "not working" can cling to antiquated technologies.
Why keep phones next to you when you are at a computer with a nice keyboard? That's some seriously weird effort just to use phone-only technologies as if it is the 1980s.
Many corporate jobs won't let you install whatever IM solution you're using. or are blocking them to keep malware at bay.
Same goes for personal email - all of the hospitals around here recently set blocks in place for as many email providers as they can (I assume they subscribe to some type of list). One health center was hit through someone's email - so they really locked that down. I assume they also put all kinds of filters in place on their corp email.
With those things in mind, I can definitely see people needing to keep their own device/phone/tablet near by for personal type communications throughout the day.
-
@scottalanmiller said in Why Do People Still Text:
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
Why do people still text? At least in the US? Because it works for them.
My argument is that it doesn't, but they don't realize all of the problems that they are having and just accept it not working well. Much like how businesses say "it worked for me" when, if you do a post mortem, you discover that it didn't.
People use it despite it not meeting their needs or not meeting them well.
Well - this is the reality of a ton of things - cable TV hasn't worked well for most people for ages... The Tivo was a stop gap solution (the VHS before that) - but now streaming anywhere anytime has replaced cable TV - yet, there are still millions and millions of cable TV subscribers - sure it's not the best solution, but the friction of moving to something completely different is to great for those people for whatever reason. Just because you choose to change doesn't mean they are wrong not to - gawd, did I really just say that while thinking of faxes? LOL
-
@scottalanmiller said in Why Do People Still Text:
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
Unlike Scott - the masses do keep their phones near them and charged, at least near enough that other solutions don't present themselves as a much more reliable communication channel.
Yes, in a great effort to make things work that are obtuse, complicated and unreliable so that they, through huge effort of things "not working" can cling to antiquated technologies.
Why keep phones next to you when you are at a computer with a nice keyboard? That's some seriously weird effort just to use phone-only technologies as if it is the 1980s.
While it isn't anywhere near perfect - what really is - SMS's biggest advantage in the US is ubiquity - you have a cellphone? then you have SMS. Sure, some tiny percent of the population doesn't have a cellphone, or they have a flip phone, so SMS isn't an option, but those people are so few that it doesn't affect the masses.
Email would be a great replacement - but there's so much crap in email that many just ignore it.
If, somehow, one player in the US stood up and everyone wanted/did joined them.. then they would likely become the defacto replacement for SMS.
I can only assume What'sApp did that in CA and SA. Scott told me that What'sApp is so huge that they actually work with direct connections to the cellular carriers in these locations - not through a typical internet connection like we use in the US. I wonder where the money comes from to pay for that? Do the carriers share their revenue with What'sApp? are there ads on the the phones? Do people have to pay for What'sApp?
-
@scottalanmiller said in Why Do People Still Text:
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
Cost - Scott mentioned the other side of this, in the US, SMSing in basically included in all plans - no cost difference, therefore no friction/reason to find another solution.
It wasn't for a long time. And while it is "included" in most other countries, too, it's not free between users. US only works because it's a single, enormous market. It's an exception, not a rule.
I worded my post with that knowledge in hand.
This board is mainly visited by US persons - so I responded mainly to that group.
-
@scottalanmiller said in Why Do People Still Text:
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
I'm curious - do those plans there include a specific amount of data for a flat rate? Or is data unlimited like on so many plans in the US now?
In places like Nicaragua, things like WhatsApp and Telegram don't use your data rate. So it's unlimited as long as you have a phone. Unlimited calls, messages, videos, pictures, file transfers, etc. All in one place. All with huge bandwidth. All at the minimum price.
So where in the US, the carriers provide SMSing free - in those areas you mention, those carriers offer WhatsApp, etc free.
The same could happen in the US - but my question is - how is it paid for? And I already mentioned that the gov't definitely doesn't want a third party to get in the mix and block their access to monitor communications.
Using anything other than those protocols means using multiple tools, losing security, using data rates or SMS rates, losing interoperability... all at great effort.
yeah the SMS protocol is shit.
Just like in the US, sending pictures, files, videos, making video calls... none of that works or works reliably over SMS. We have customers in the US try to use texting regularly and it creates so much work because they are always trying files too large, files that get compressed and are unusable, file types are not supported, can't do real time video, etc.
Texting isn't "working" for most people. It's a combination of people willing to do a lot of work to pretend it's working for them (the hipster complex) and confusion as people think they are texting often when they are not.
Sure, again SMS is shit. that siad
-
@scottalanmiller said in Why Do People Still Text:
People use it despite it not meeting their needs or not meeting them well.
Not meeting your needs, is not failing to meet their needs.
Stop imposing your own perception on "everyone"
-
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
they have a flip phone, so SMS isn't an option, but those people are so few that it doesn't affect the masses.
Huh? Every flip phone and service I've had in the 90s and early 2000s had SMS texting.
-
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
The same could happen in the US - but my question is - how is it paid for? And I already mentioned that the gov't definitely doesn't want a third party to get in the mix and block their access to monitor communications.
It's paid for by customer on a monthly basis
-
My wife and I text - she's not interested in using a third party application...
That said, I use any one of the following:
- Skype
- Telegram
- Signal
- Messenger (rare - as I dislike the FB Stream)
- Cliq (NTG)
- Discord
- NextCloud (retired self hosted server)
- Google Voice (rarely)
My office is in a poor coverage area for cell, but it's better then internet over cell. Texting works more reliably there.
-
@obsolesce said in Why Do People Still Text:
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
they have a flip phone, so SMS isn't an option, but those people are so few that it doesn't affect the masses.
Huh? Every flip phone and service I've had in the 90s and early 2000s had SMS texting.
sure it does, but those that I know that have flip phones don't text, I know three.. none of them use SMS.
-
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
@obsolesce said in Why Do People Still Text:
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
they have a flip phone, so SMS isn't an option, but those people are so few that it doesn't affect the masses.
Huh? Every flip phone and service I've had in the 90s and early 2000s had SMS texting.
sure it does, but those that I know that have flip phones don't text, I know three.. none of them use SMS.
Not an option versus choosing not to use something are very different things...
-
@obsolesce said in Why Do People Still Text:
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
@obsolesce said in Why Do People Still Text:
@dashrender said in Why Do People Still Text:
they have a flip phone, so SMS isn't an option, but those people are so few that it doesn't affect the masses.
Huh? Every flip phone and service I've had in the 90s and early 2000s had SMS texting.
sure it does, but those that I know that have flip phones don't text, I know three.. none of them use SMS.
Not an option versus choosing not to use something are very different things...
wow - you're right, I massively over stated it.
Supposedly places like Africa flip phones are about all they have, and they do their whole digital lives on those things.
