You describe the apps as though they are recreational drugs with no other purpose but to produce endorphins. These 'apps' have a high level of utility - which is, I imagine, why most start to use them in the first place.
The utility is not of existential importance. Yes, you can uninstall Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and the sky will not fall, life will just go on.
My neighbors and school parents all coordinate via WhatsApp. The sky will not fall no, but if you don't join those groups you wouldn't know about upcoming HOA meetings, school events, important forms to fill etc.
Facebook is useful for bigger communities like moms groups. We found babysitters that way.
One of my social clubs tried to skip out of social media and was originally meeting in person, calling each other etc, but information just fell through the cracks as the club got larger.
A lot of small businesses use these platforms for outreach. Without them they wouldn't have an avenue to reach and stay in contact with customers. An example would be a potter showing their work on Instagram and then linking back to their Shopify website.
Big tech literally has fingers in every single pie imaginable and it's real money for a lot of people, unfortunately.
Yeah, that's a very good counter-argument. I recently talked to a potter exactly like that, they said Instagram is their primary sales channel. Unlike for me, for them leaving would have significant financial consequences. The majority of users are not in this situation though.
Things would be a massive PITA without WhatsApp for me. I guess iMessage/RCS would do, or one of the many alternatives, but in the UK, WA is the messaging platform.
I vibe coded an app to help me manage my Toastmasters groups and WhatsApp API made it really easy for me to nudge people when needed and ask for volunteers or confirmation of attendance.
Honestly speaking I would not be in a leadership position for my Toastmasters groups if I needed to call each individual member every week as my other Toastmaster club does. That probably says something about me, but I'm sure many other folks would have a similar outlook.
> The utility is not of existential importance. Yes, you can uninstall Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and the sky will not fall, life will just go on.
>> Similarly to how you can just eat less and lose weight.
I'd argue it isn't similar in an important way, people cannot opt out of eating entirely. Overeaters must eat. People who can't control themselves with social media do not need to use them at all.
No they don't, not really. They are endorphin machines as you said. The perceived utility is a false perception caused by their being endorphin machines.
