Last year, the WhatsApp-Facebook-Instagram empire went offline globally for about seven hours. The blackout caused worldwide commotion and countless losses, especially for those who built their business communication exclusively on these apps.
I was once an intense social media user, despite joining them late. Today I have Instagram and Facebook accounts with no friends added and no posts on my profile. I use them only for surveys and sporadic interactions in thematic groups related to my work.
However, in this text, I want to talk specifically about WhatsApp, the messaging app I quit in 2019, never to return. I also left Telegram. So I’m telling you here what it’s like to live without these apps.
Worrying Statistics about WhatsApp Usage and Screen Time
The Messenger in Brazil survey, carried out by the Panorama project (Mobile Time and Opinion Box)1, published new results in August 2021. Considering people over 16 in Brazil who have a smartphone and Internet access, the report states that:
- 99% have WhatsApp installed on their cell phones, and also: Instagram 82%, Facebook Messenger 76%, Telegram 53%, and Signal 12%.
- 86% access WhatsApp daily, 9% almost every day. In other words, 95% of Brazilians access this app nearly every day.
- 80% communicate with brands and companies via WhatsApp to answer questions, receive technical support and promotions, buy products and services, etc.
- 74% are in family groups, 60% in workgroups, and 15% in political groups.
- 62% make more calls through WhatsApp than regular calls.
- 7% have already registered a credit card on WhatsApp to send and receive money.
Reuters Institute Digital News Report 20212 points out that:
- 82% of Brazilians are concerned about misinformation and fake news, leading the statistic among countries surveyed.
- WhatsApp is the social media that most worries Brazilians regarding misinformation about Covid-19.
- 47% share news via email, social media, and messages.
Brazil is the #1 country in the world for smartphone usage: on average, Brazilians spend 5.4 hours a day on their cellphones!
App Annie 2022 Report3
The content seen on these screens is a big issue as well.
My Surveys for Monitoring WhatsApp and Social Media: the Horrors That We Cannot Click on “Un-see”
The Social Computing Lab (Locus) of the Computer Science Department (DCC/UFMG) developed, in 2018, the WhatsApp Monitor4. It was a project coordinated by professor Fabricio Benevenuto. The Telegram Monitor is in development now.
This pioneering tool, developed by my colleagues at UFMG, is simply fantastic. The monitor allows daily ranking of the most shared images, videos, messages, links, and audios in WhatsApp public political groups in Brazil, monitoring hundreds or even thousands of groups simultaneously.
The monitor was a revolution for all of us in information and cyberculture. We were now able to generate statistics on the content circulating on WhatsApp from an extensive database.
LavMUSEU, our virtual lab at the School of Information Science at UFMG, used the WhatsApp Monitor to research the contents associated with museums shared during the 2018 Brazilian presidential elections, a project under my coordination5. And the result is that I was baffled by everything I saw on social media during this survey.
Hardcore fake pornography was associated with various politicians. Highly distorted use of religious texts and principles. All sorts of hate speech. Images of human corpses open with their organs exposed and a lot of violence.
In particular, I was appalled by videos of (alleged) thieves, caught in the act by the Brazilian population, being lynched in front of cell phone cameras. A lot of praise almost always accompanied these videos because in the distorted logic of these people “a good criminal is a dead criminal.” It is the height of barbarism.
These are what I can describe here because there are things I saw on social media I prefer not to talk about. If I could, I would press my memory’s “un-see” button.
The International Movement of Brazilian Researchers for Changes in WhatsApp
Given the extremely high level of misinformation associated with WhatsApp, also evidenced by the Locus monitoring tool, Brazilian specialists, including Professor Benevenuto, published an article in The New York Times6.
They intended to sensitize the company to promote changes in its parameters and settings for shares and groups. The intention was, thus, to reduce the potential for the tool dissemination and, consequently, its damage to our ongoing electoral process.
WhatsApp actually implemented some changes, but only after those elections ended, when it was too late.
Current investigations have revealed that powerful Brazilian business people and politicians may have sponsored the mass shootings of fake news on WhatsApp. And this is a global problem.
In January 2021, we watched astonished, surreal scenes of insurgency against democracy on the US Capitol. Fake news and social networks may have contributed to this, as the leaked internal documents on Facebook show.7
In Brazil, a high degree of fake news is also circulating, despite all the work that the quality press and the university have been doing to combat fake news and conspiracy theories.
Threats: The Dangers of WhatsApp Searching
The so-called brain drain is ongoing, with several scientists leaving the country due to threats to their security and privacy.
The podcast Scientists on the Front Line, by Agência Pública, presents several stories of Brazilian leaders and researchers who work on sensitive issues. The episodes show the consequences in their personal and professional lives. Scientific knowledge is under heavy attack in Brazil.
Professor Benevenuto is one of the interviewees in episode 6. It also tells the story of Brazilian computer scientist David Nemer8. Professor Nemer, who teaches at the University of Virginia – USA, researches WhatsApp political groups. Like the others, David lives under the shroud of fear after receiving threats via email containing a photo of himself walking in the streets in Brazil.
After giving an interview to the Brazilian press about social media, David also received threats through Instagram. The message contained pictures of weapons and mentioned his family in Brazil and the ease of buying rifles in the United States, where the researcher currently resides.
The British research institute Latin America Bureau has created a support group for threatened academics in Brazil. It already has more than 300 members.
Scientists on the Front Line – Episode 6 – Computer Scientists and Fake News
Telegram: New World Stage for Cyber Political Wars and Spread of Disinformation
The week that WhatsApp crashed, Telegram gained 70 million new users. With the ability to indiscriminately send messages, find public theme groups through searches, and form groups of hundreds of thousands of people, this app has the potential to wreak even more havoc than WhatsApp.
The fact is that in just three years, Telegram has grown its presence on Brazilian cell phones from 15% to the current 53%. 18% of users participate in political groups on Telegram and 8% in paid groups.1 Every day, this app sends billions of messages around the world, according to its founder. And these numbers show an upward trend.
It will be challenging to convince the Russians to restrict their settings, as they claim it is a “freedom of speech” issue. However, what we have watched is the use of Telegram to commit crimes and terrorist practices9, functioning as a mass dissemination factory of fake news.
It is very naive to transfer the solution of Internet problems to the realm of personal decision or the benevolence of technology companies. The Web cannot be a lawless land.
The regulation of online communication is a complex topic that deserves dedicated posts. The summary is: dark times lie ahead of us if nothing is done.
WhatsApp Harms Our Mental Health and our Democracies
I confess that research on social media’s fake news impacted my personal life. I began to have difficulty sleeping, becoming more lifeless and blue. To be honest, I also began to doubt the solidity of humanity’s civilizing process.
Beto told me that his advice, not as a husband, but as a doctor, was that I should rethink this issue at that moment because it wasn’t doing me any good. Can you imagine what happens with people who stay on social media all day, especially participating in extremist groups? And I was also concerned about the mental health of my team.
I have temporarily suspended our investigation front on museum fake news for all these reasons. This suspension remains today.
The research made me understand a lot, including why many people have such mistaken ideas and reactionary discourse. If they are bombarded daily with so much garbage, it is no wonder they have become aggressive, bitter, and uninformed.
These bubbles in those texting apps also amplify the radicalization process, as they unite people with similar tendencies and thoughts, which become stronger and stronger through confirmation bias.
After this project, I understood the origin of some absurd opinions that public people, friends, and relatives emitted. Then, the polarization we were experiencing made a lot more sense to me, which increased my concerns about the direction of my country and the world.
Mental and Emotional Overload Caused by WhatsApp
Even for someone who lives in a cultural and intellectual bubble like me, where WhatsApp can also be a source of intelligent ideas and discussions, I noticed a strong mental and emotional overload associated with this tool, mainly caused by:
- I was receiving constant demands for information or professional inquiries. Work and requests for favors reached me all the time, 24/7.
- I was receiving advertisements for products, services, events, exhibitions all the time. Some were even interesting and suited to my profile, but this leads to consumerism. There’s no way to buy everything we like or participate in all the exciting events in a metropolis like Belo Horizonte.
- When I didn’t have time to follow the dialogues and read all the messages, FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) took over, that feeling of not being up-to-date with all the demands and breaking news.
- An absurd flood of news, images, and links reached my cell phone every day. Even in my bubble, fake news also occasionally circulated. It was impossible to read all that, and sometimes I spent hours consuming various information that dealt with the same topic. This caused me mental exhaustion, anxiety, and difficulty concentrating, in addition to hindering and taking up time from other more productive forms of reading, such as books.
- Social pressure to respond to everything, even with a smiley face emoticon, including that good morning card your neighbor’s cousin’s sister’s aunt sent you, wishing you a great morning. We want to be polite, and in Brazil, not responding to messages doesn’t go down well. This social expectation makes the content on WhatsApp get much more engagement than on other social networks. Not only that, we tend to participate more and trust more what comes via texting apps because acquaintances pass it on to us.
- Side conversations that made me tense: Is this conversation private, or do they want to screenshot my opinions to share them with others without my consent?
- Disagreements in the exchange of messages because the discussion took place without the other mitigating information that face-to-face contacts provide (gesture, tone of voice, eye contact, etc.).
- The possibility of receiving, at any moment, awful news, an annoying newspaper article, or, as already mentioned, a request for a favor caused me anxiety.
Finally, I am an introspective person. Being accessible all the time caused me a feeling of vulnerability and little control over my time and my own life, as if I were permanently placed in a showcase. I was taken over by a pervasive and constant sense of insecurity and overexposure, even though I was alone, drinking tea and reading a book in the safety of my office. As a result, I needed to take drastic measures.
Shocking Stats of My WhatsApp Usage
At the beginning of 2019, I decided to change my messaging apps use. I left various groups and conversations as much as possible and put the following notice on my profile: “I check WhatsApp once a day after lunch.”
It was not enough. When analyzing my use of WhatsApp in June 2019, I found out that:
- I accessed the app every day, invariably. I could not always meet the goal of only accessing after lunch.
- According to my cell phone monitoring app, I spent about 8 hours a week on WhatsApp. It was much more than that before I got rid of some groups and changed my attitude.
- I had about 350 different conversations on WhatsApp.
- Approximately 70 conversations seemed relevant, ongoing, and relatively frequent.
- More than 20 conversations were intense, some of which involved large groups, with several interactions from me.
I tried to make a conscious use of WhatsApp, but I couldn’t. It’s different from email, where you can reply to one today and then continue tomorrow, even if the person sends you another right away.
WhatsApp is an instant conversation. It is difficult to simply “disappear” in the middle of it and only come back a day later. Even worse, the app intentionally reveals to everyone that you are online.
Also, I confess that I enjoyed discussing on WhatsApp. I was one of those users who liked to produce long texts. (The reader has already noticed that I love long essays.) Receiving the messages and pressing “send” would trigger one big adrenaline rush.
In other words, this all took up a lot of time and a very intense flow of interactions, which impacted my emotional state and my quality of life.
Then, I decided to give it a go and leave WhatsApp and then Telegram. I had used Telegram very sparingly, but I decided to leave so that it would not become my new WhatsApp.
In addition to personal concerns, I didn’t want to contribute to apps that cause so many problems to people, society, and the world.
Good Reasons for Deleting WhatsApp
I told my contacts that I was quitting WhatsApp and Telegram with one last long message explaining the reasons behind my decision:
Risks to Our Privacy
WhatsApp has a serious digital privacy problem, as the company cannot see our messages, but it has a lot of metadata about us:
- Name.
- Profile picture.
- Phone number.
- Phone data (brand, model).
- Operator.
- IP number.
- Connection location.
- Financial transactions via the app.
- Our contact’s info.
- Status updates.
- Usage time and activities in the app.
WhatsApp can’t see what you write because it’s all encrypted, but it can know to whom, when, and where you do it. This information is now shared and integrated with that collected by Facebook and Instagram. It is a strategy to amplify the use of WhatsApp for commercial and business purposes.
We must add that since 2016, WhatsApp’s privacy policy has violated Brazilian laws: the Consumer Protection Code, the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet, and, since 2020, also the LGPD (General Data Protection Law).10
Personal Data Leaks
Texting apps have the danger of leaks and, consequently, unintentional exposure to our privacy. Despite the encryption in the transport of messages, they are still physically on the equipment, which can be invaded, hacked, or stolen.
When we participate in this kind of network, the degree of our lives’ exposure is very significant, especially since messages and audio are made on impulse. Unlike, for example, this blog text, which went through a time of maturation and was read by others before going live, giving me a chance to reflect and cool down before publishing.
Absence of Creative Leisure and Inner Silence
With so many digital messages and distractions, I missed moments of creative leisure11 and inner silence, vital for our maturation, reflection on life, and personal growth.
The cell phone was consuming my free time. It would be better invested in other enriching activities for the body and soul.
#GoingBackToRealLife
I ended this WhatsApp farewell message with the hashtag #GoingToRealLife and ended this “abusive relationship” without ever looking back. It was one of the best things I’ve done.
My only regret is not having left but having accessed WhatsApp once!
People’s Reaction When I Deleted WhatsApp
After forwarding the message warning that I would soon delete the app, many told me that they thought my decision was courageous, but unfortunately, they would not be able to do the same. This raises a critical reflection for us.
The fact that people rationally wish to quit, but do not feel capable of doing so, shows how these technologies are addictive and, at the same time, harmful. WhatsApp is the opium of many people, as in the Nugget animation. And it’s just one of the social networks; imagine who’s on several of them!
This messenger is so widespread that it is prevalent for people to ask me to send something via WhatsApp without even confirming beforehand if I have it installed. This is a fait accompli in their minds. “Everyone has!” And there is, as we saw from the statistics at the beginning of this text.
I then reply: “Sorry, I don’t have WhatsApp. Could we do it another way, please?” And I invariably cause a deathly silence in my interlocutor. People stay unresponsive, incredulous, and they don’t have a plan B to offer me. Then I say that I can send an SMS, an email, or call the responsible department directly, whatever the person prefers.
I was once on a technical visit to a museum during a congress. The guide commented something about receiving more information via WhatsApp. When they found out that I was the only one in the group that didn’t have the app, I suddenly became the most exotic piece on display in that museum. And then questions like these arose:
How do your co-workers and friends find you? Do you have a social life? Don’t you feel isolated from the world?
Perhaps many of you ask yourself these same questions, so here we go.
How Do I Communicate With the Rest of the World?
There are countless ways to communicate with people besides WhatsApp and Telegram. I will mention just a few here to prove my life’s normal.
The good old SMS – Short Message Service – still exists. Most people communicate with me via SMS. For iPhone users like me, messaging is empowered with iMessage features.
Some curiosities from the survey of the Panorama project on SMS, in 20211:
- 48% of Brazilians receive SMS messages every day or almost daily.
- As for sending, 43% rarely send SMS, 23% never send, and 18% send a few times a month.
This data reflects my experience. The number of messages I receive on SMS/iMessage is drastically lower than WhatsApp. I can go a whole week or more without receiving a single SMS, except spam. I block these marketing companies as I get their annoying ads.
Thus, people usually send SMS only when necessary. It’s much more objective. In SMS, there are no groups, good morning cards, and cute kitten videos. I often reply to messages only in the afternoon.
In addition to text messages, my friends and co-workers can access me via video conference or write me an email, which is something more official than messages, and I can save.
I only answer emails once a day, usually around 4 pm. So, there is time enough to solve urgent issues coming to it and emotionally absorb good and bad news, to have a peaceful night with my family. I avoid back and forth in the email with very few exceptions. I reply to each person only once a day, so the email doesn’t become an even more inefficient WhatsApp.
My students send me messages mainly via Moodle (UFMG’s learning management system), which I usually access when I check my email. I think it’s great because it’s an official channel and documents everything.
In the Messenger of my Facebook profile, I am part of the group Architects and Friends, with my closest colleagues from college, spread across Brazil. I really miss the people and other groups I lost by deleting WhatsApp, but it’s part of life. I can’t have it all. This group at least has a parallel option.
The most important thing is that I don’t have the Messenger app installed on my cell phone, and I occasionally access it on my computer without pressure or urgency. Therefore, I do not approach Messenger as WhatsApp. It is a much more limited and sporadic use.
If you need a messenger app, I recommend Signal12, which is the best and the one that protects your privacy the most. It is a non-profit open-source project, which is why activists worldwide adopt this app.
Far fewer people use Signal, and you can block everyone who isn’t essential. That’s what I did. I have a group with my husband, sister, and dad on Signal. We needed a group to solve mainly logistical issues of the grandparents’ outings with the children. My mom is offline. She follows the arrangements made by my dad. My in-laws do not live in Belo Horizonte city, and I communicate very well with them via SMS.
The other contacts in Signal, I block practically all of them. Since SMS abroad is complicated, I make very few exceptions, like foreign journalists, professors, or research partners.
So don’t be offended if I block you on Signal. It’s not personal. It’s just a matter of organizing communication. But my SMS is all yours. FaceTime and phone calls still exist.
In fact, reducing my screen time and increasing face-to-face communication with those I love is one of my current priorities. Better than chatting on the cell phone is chatting live in some museum cafe.
Finally, I use management software specially designed for communication in my personal life and projects, such as Todoist13 and private platforms developed with WordPress and its plugins.
So yes, I work and have a normal social life! The world didn’t end after I left WhatsApp. In reality, it only got better.
And When There’s No Other Way?
And when WhatsApp and Telegram are the only options? So download the app, use and delete it later. It’s only happened to me two or three times in the last few years. You install, do what needs to do, and delete the app in five minutes. Another option is to ask someone in the group to download or post something for you.
For example, I once attended a course on book publishing. The course teacher made a group available on Telegram for sharing material among students. At the end of the course, I joined the group, downloaded all the content that interested me, and then left — that simple.
Another example: are your friends arranging dinner on WhatsApp? Someone posts the times you have available and then returns you with the final resolution.
My husband decided that he would not give up WhatsApp for the sake of his residents and patients. So he’s in our church group. From time to time, I post my blog texts there and sign “Ana, wife of the WhatsApp owner,” which became a laughingstock. I’m married to “ZuckerBeto.” It’s a fun group. He’s also in the kids’ school moms group, but I almost always call the school when I have any questions.
Anyway, in my case, I can easily live without WhatsApp and Telegram.
I am fully aware that having the freedom to delete WhatsApp and Telegram puts me in a privileged position when this option should be everyone’s right, in my opinion.
Some people use these apps to earn a living and don’t have the freedom to delete them. Whether because the boss obliges or because your business depends on these tools.
Honestly, I would advise your team to communicate more professionally. If they don’t and this work style is taking a toll on your mental health, I recommend even changing your occupation or job, if possible. Messengers are not efficient in managing communication in teams. And that, for sure, will be a reason for a lot of work stress.
If there is no other way, I suggest that you disable notifications for everything you can. You also can have two cell phones: one for your professional life, which you access during work hours, and another for your personal life.
I had two cell phones in the past, but the secondary equipment broke, and I did not fix it. It worked very well and is an excellent choice for separating the spheres of life.
The Drawbacks of Deleting
Yes, it could be that you no longer have contact with people you like very much. You could miss a nice opening because you weren’t in the museum’s curator group, a party that someone forgot to tell you about, or even some interesting professional contact. However, I have not noticed any serious or irreversible damage in these years, both in my professional and personal life.
Not having WhatsApp or Telegram doesn’t get people’s sympathy; I need to be completely honest with the reader.
On the part of some, I even feel benign envy of my decision. They wish me well but get upset that they can’t do the same and delete the apps. Others sound really bitter because it feels like I’m making things difficult.
Some people will think you’re blasé or snobby, as if your time is more important than theirs. In fact, those devaluing their own time are not me, but themselves.
Pleasing everyone should not be our priority, rather having a deep, healthy, and happy life, with free time for what and those that really matter.
And that’s exactly what I achieved by deleting WhatsApp, as well as optimizing all my other forms of digital communication. We will talk a lot about it in this blog.
Essential Tips Before Pressing the Delete Button
If the reader wants to break the chains of WhatsApp and Telegram, two pieces of advice:
Don’t Leave Discreetly
If you’re determined to leave for good, send everyone a message, that blunt farewell text. It is important to inform your contacts about the WhatsApp delete reasons and other possible communication channels. Also, this creates a high social cost around this decision.
After a cathartic and hard-won exit, returning to WhatsApp can be embarrassing. That way, your dignity will give you a little help to stick to your purpose. At the very least, if you choose to go back anyway, it won’t be an impulse decision. In this case, write a new message to your primary contacts, explaining the reasons for the return.
I didn’t have that problem. I’ll confess that it was a happy choice for me and, probably, there’s no going back, but many people feel tempted to return.
Don’t Focus on the Emotional Side: Weigh the Pros and Cons
WhatsApp has some important benefits, like keeping you connected with the people you care about, strengthening these bonds with small daily contacts. The app can also reduce loneliness, as some research points out.14
Through WhatsApp, my relatives and friends had real adventures with me, like when three planes I boarded on an international trip crashed, forcing us to change aircraft. I’m not kidding. It happened three times in a row.
We even went to the runway to take off and turn back in the first aircraft. The tests to fix the engine were carried out with passengers inside the plane in two of those. I felt in the movie of my childhood Airplane! at the exact moment the flight attendant announced that the coffee was out.
With each loud engine sound performed by mechanics, the passengers stuck silently to the chair. Others screamed or even cried. Some first-class passengers took their hand luggage and simply got off the plane. It was terrifying and funny at the same time.
And it was all witnessed and shared with my family and friends, in real-time, via WhatsApp groups. I was in another hemisphere and alone because it was a work trip, but I didn’t feel alone on that plane. The presence of friends with me there and the jokes about the situation made all the difference. And I need to credit this to WhatsApp.
Anyway, pressing the delete button on some groups broke my heart for all these memories. And that’s what makes many people stick with the tool: it’s simply practical and excellent entertainment. There’s no denying it.
However, we need to analyze the pros and cons here correctly. In this case, I suggest writing a list of the positives and negatives, clarifying why you should remain (or not) using these messaging apps.
You also need to do an honest self-assessment and see if you can make a rational use of WhatsApp.
Maybe like me, at the end of this process, you will realize that these apps generate anxiety and digitally occupy time that could be better invested in more meaningful face-to-face relationships (including with your WhatsApp friends). In this case, don’t overthink. Just delete it!
Still not convinced? So let me tell you a bit about my life after this change.
What Has Improved in My Life After Quitting WhatsApp and Telegram?
If I had to sum it up in one word, it would be a relief. It feels like I took a huge weight off my back. I came out of a noisy street into a mental oasis.
Like if I went from a traffic jam in New York to Central Park. Or in my city, from Afonso Pena avenue to the viewpoint of Mangabeiras park!
Other significant changes have also taken place in recent years. These changes are not only due to the deletion of messaging apps but are part of my quest for a better quality of life:
Exercise Routine
I finally managed to establish an exercise routine in my life. I walk in the streets and squares of my city about five times a week for at least an hour. Now I’m also returning to the gym.
Detoxification and Reduction of News Consumption
Without that absurd amount of links and articles that arrived daily on my cell phone, my news reading is more organized and intentional. I am both better informed and less anxious. I’m less angry, too.
Increased Ability to Concentrate
My ability to focus and concentrate has improved exponentially, as these messaging apps and social networks end up fragmenting our attention. All of this is very important, even more so for me, who earn my livelihood and fulfillment through intellectual work. Therefore, there was an improvement in my productivity and quality of life.
Getting More Into a Flow State
I’m getting more into a flow state when doing things. Flow is that incredible feeling of focusing on the here and now, immersing yourself deeply in an activity. It is the state I am in right now, writing this post or working on my research projects. When I go into flow, I don’t feel hungry, I don’t remember the problems, and I even forget to pick up the kids from school. (Don’t worry, dear readers, I set the alarm on my cell phone for that!)
Improved Mental Health
As soon as I left WhatsApp, I noticed a significant improvement in my mental health and my emotional energy level to face the challenges of life, which are already stressful enough. Especially after everything we are facing these years.
The Best Change
In his chronicle Days of Reading in the newspaper Le Figaro15, Marcel Proust said that there were so many sick people and epidemics that books found readers. However, even in those times, reading encountered a strong competitor…
The writer confesses that they only read as a last resort because they made a lot of calls on the phone. They were like children who play with the sacred forces without shuddering in the face of their mystery. And Proust completes: “I used to say that, before we decide to read, we still try to talk, use the telephone, dial numbers, and more numbers.“
One hundred years have passed, and this reading competitor today connects us not to one but several people at the same time, instantly, with text, image, voice, and video. And we go on playing with these hidden forces, like children who walk absorbed amid so many dangers.
We need to get off the phone. When I gave up messaging apps and optimized social media, my reading days returned, and I resumed this vital habit.
I also discovered excellent podcasts, which provide me with good company in homework or monotonous exercises at the gym. I gained mentors and made new friends with them, even though it is almost always a one-way relationship.
And I also started to read with my ears. Audiobooks came into my life, taking me to readings that I would not have considered doing before, simply because they didn’t seem priorities. And now, I can also have books as a company on my daily walks under the flowering trees of Belo Horizonte city.
The Most Convincing Argument for You to Quit WhatsApp And Telegram for Good
WhatsApp has been downloaded 5.6 billion times around the world since 2014.
BBC News Brazil10
These numbers show the strength of this app in our digital culture. WhatsApp and Telegram have their advantages. There is no denying it. However, the list of benefits of giving up these messaging apps is also long, and I could go on and on describing numerous other positive changes I’ve seen from deleting them.
However, the most convincing argument anyone can give is experience.
If the reader is still resistant, tell yourself it’s just an experiment for a month. Maybe it’s easier to go a step further by thinking that it’s just a specific period. If you decide to stay on WhatsApp after this month, I bet that at least its use will be wiser and more conscious.
After a while of freedom, chances are you’ll feel like you’ve been born again. That’s what happened to me. In this case, I’ll wait for you on the other side of the river… in the potentially productive parallel world where 1% of Brazilians who disconnected from WhatsApp live!
Notes
Post published on my Portuguese blog on November 6th, 2021.
Please help me improve my English by submitting your suggestions through this contact form.
1 – Message Research in Brazil, 2021.
The survey is part of the Panorama project, a partnership between the news portal Mobile Time and the company Opinion Box. It was carried out through an online platform, respecting the proportions and sampling required to obtain a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points and a confidence level of 95%.
Messaging Report in Brazil 2021 – Portuguese (PDF)
2 – Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 2021.
The report on digital news, published by the Reuters Institute and the University of Oxford, discloses immense research carried out in several countries worldwide through online questionnaires. In four countries, including Brazil, they also had focus groups.
Reuters Institute Digital News Report, 2021 (PDF)
3 – App Annie.
The State of Mobile 2022 report, published by App Annie, a company specializing in cell phones and applications, places Brazil among the top countries in various consumption statistics. One caveat is that the data available for the number of hours on the cell phone per day refer only to Android cell phones.
State of Mobile 2022 App Annie Report (PDF)
4 – Locus DCC/UFMG WhatsApp Monitor.
WhatsApp Monitor is accessed through an online platform and generates the ranking of the most shared content on the selected date, separated by type (image, message, link, etc.), also providing data on the groups and number of users involved. It is possible to click on the image and search for it on Google.
5 – Museums and Fake News: 2018 Elections – Research project
Locus (DCC/UFMG) allowed partnerships with fact-checking professionals and other research groups, providing free access to its applications, such as the WhatsApp Monitor.
LavMUSEU, our virtual laboratory at the UFMG School of Information Science, used the WhatsApp Monitor to survey shared content associated with museums during the 2018 Brazilian presidential elections. The subject reached the trending topics on several social networks, including WhatsApp monitoring, especially after the fire at the National Museum.
In the project, we also used the Twitter Bot Detector (Locus tool), publications from the leading fact-checking agencies, tools for counting links shared on social networks, and rankings from surveys about Facebook. Some of these data were released by researchers from USP University (Political Debate in the Digital Environment Monitor).
This monitoring was carried out within the project Museums and Fake News: Elections of 2018, which I coordinated at UFMG. Thus, we monitored what was happening in hundreds of political WhatsApp groups for about two months.
According to the WhatsApp Monitor, 27 messages mentioning museums were shared 186 times in 15 days of the monitored period (59 days in total). In other words, in 25% of the days during the electoral campaign, museums were on the agenda in the groups captured by the system, a quarter of the time.
Most of the messages revolved around the fire at the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, which took place in the early hours of September 2-3, 2018. Therefore, within the electoral period. Another recurring theme in the messages was the Brazilian Rouanet Culture Incentive Law. The survey also showed 14 images that may be associated with museums, shared in the period.
We detected serious fake news and/or context distortions in these shares.
6 – Article on The New York Times.
Fake News is poisoning Brazilian politics. WhatsApp can stop it.
If you are not an NYT subscriber, read the article on the Wayback Machine by clicking here.
7 – Social media and the invasion of the US Capitol.
Facebook sabia do risco de invasão ao Capitólio (Nexo Jornal article in Portuguese).
8 – Frontline Scientists podcast and researcher David Nemer.
Listen to the Scientists on the Frontline (Cientistas na Linha de Frente, Portuguese podcast) and learn about the stories of our researchers, many of them under great threat. Episode 6 is dedicated to computer scientists who study fake news. In it, professor Fabrício Benevenuto, from UFMG, and Brazilian researcher David Nemer, from the University of Virginia, were interviewed.
9 – Telegram and its controversies.
Pavel Durov of Telegram: WhatsApp Sucks (Video of the interview on the TechCrunch channel).
Telegram: o sedutor ambiente do vale (quase) tudo (Mobile Time article in Portuguese).
10 – WhatsApp and the data protection controversy.
Caso WhatsApp é prova de fogo para sistema de proteção de dados ( Nexo Jornal article in Portuguese).
11 – Creative leisure and free time.
On this topic, I recommend the books Ócio Criativo (Creative leisure), by Domenico de Masi; In The Praise of Idleness, by Bertrand Russell, and the text Free Time by Theodor W. Adorno.
12 – Signal.
Signal is a non-commercial open-source app. It is the only one whose server is also open-source, further expanding transparency. Its encryption protocol has been adopted by Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype, and Google, only reinforcing its prestige.
Signal is probably the safest of all, which is why it has been chosen by activists and politicians worldwide.
Read more on the topic in Amnesty International’s report and ranking of technology companies. The Signal app did not enter the rankings due to its low number of users, but the report very well references it.
13 – Todoist.
Todoist is the primary management software I currently use to do my daily planning. The app allows you to organize task lists into projects. In it, I manage both my professional and personal life. The app has a free plan with some feature limitations, which is likely to suit most users.
14 – WhatsApp and mental health.
WhatsApp pode fazer bem à saúde mental dos usuários, diz pesquisa (Techtudo article in Portuguese).
15 – Reading Days Chronicle – Marcel Proust.
Salões de Paris, Marcel Proust, Editora Carambaia, 2018, p.87.
Important: All software, books, and products suggested in this blog are chosen on merit and/or suitability. Therefore, there is no type of sponsorship or benefits for its indication.
Acknowledgments: Alberto Nogueira Veiga, Paulo Rocha, Heloisa Helena Rocha, and all who gave me their precious feedback, thank you for your comments and suggestions. Also, I’d like to thank my English teacher Ana E.
Images: Office table and WhatsApp screen (Adam121, Adobe Stock), UFMG Campus (Foca Lisboa, Flickr UFMG), Fake News (Wokandapix, Pixabay), Invasion of the US Capitol (Tyler Merbler, Wikipedia e Flickr), Pavel Durov (TechCrunch Flickr), Man reading book (Ola Dapo, Pexels), Couple on cell phone (Roman Odintsov, Pexels), Signal Screenshot, Todoist Screenshot, TV and Airplane! movie (KoolShooters, Pexels), Mangabeiras Park (Ana Cecilia Rocha Veiga), Woman reading book (Cottonbro, Pexels), O. Henry book (Ana Cecilia Rocha Veiga).