2k20 worst social media platform (facebook, twitter, instagram)

I also use WhatsApp for family chats to include family living overseas.

I have a bunch of different groups on Whatsapp (basically the only social I'm still on if it even counts): family, teacher mates, a group of old-school friends (some of whom are abroad), a bunch of people into cricket, a group specifically for soul music shares, etc. They're all active, some daily, some weekly.

First got WhatsApp when I had a baby and it was a good way of keeping in touch with my NCT group... so nearly 8 years ago. Like kettles, I had no idea Americans don't use it...

it was "sold" to me as phone messaging you can do on Wifi instead of using/ paying for SMS. Something like Facebook messenger has never been as widely used or simple to use imo.

People pay per text???????

PS I am an ignorant American

A long time ago you paid for phone minutes and texts. Now iirc it's more common to have a contract with a set number of minutes and texts allowed and charged per if you go over - but that still might be outdated, I dunno, I think I have unlimited texts now and possibly unlimited minutes - who even texts any more? Things have changed a lot in the last 8 years but WhatsApp still covers most bases.

When I lived in the US you had to pay to RECEIVE a text as well - if you had a pay-as-you-go plan. Never had that in the UK!

I like texting because there is no read receipt functionality, unlike WhatsApp. I like the idea of sending a message out there into the ether and not knowing when or even if it will be picked up and read. Also I turn my 4G off when I'm out of the house so I've trained my family to text me if they want to contact me when I'm out.

otm. Can't believe that "last seen" online business with whatsapp. You can turn that off but not the read receipts.

Text and call minute limits are a not so distant memory in Canada, to the point where every single current plan by every provider boasts "unlimited calling and texting!".. Other than some lower tier ones that might still have a very limited $15 a month rate. It's generally all about the gigos now, $50 a month for 6gb and whatnot on the website rates, with more reasonable prices traded in whispers at kiosks.

I'm picking up a new sim card today. God bless.

You can turn read receipts off in WhatsApp, it's right there in privacy settings. On my version at least.

so there is! done. cheers

I like the idea of sending a message out there into the ether and not knowing when or even if it will be picked up and read.

I've actually just bought a house phone... which will function as a landline pretty much, but without the line rental I refuse to pay. I'll put a PAYG sim in it and just remember to use it twice a year or so so it doesn't expire. Thought it might be useful to have something the kids can use in an emergency etc. It's like an office phone and it receives SMS!

$50 a month for 6GB

Is that a contract where you're also paying for your phone?

Because I pay £8 a month for 20GB and unlimited calls & tets

yep mine is £10 for 30gb, unlimited calls and texts

nope, no contract or phone subsidy

$50 for me for unlimited data, calls and texts. (They apparently throttle you at the 60 gig mark, but I've never used more than 20 in a month.)

US 5-10x more expensive than most of Europe

https://www.cable.co.uk/mobiles/worldwide-data-pricing/

Yeah, gotta love our phone cartels. U-S-A!

Mark Zuckerberg Quietly Buries the Metaverse

There will be no press release, no big announcement, as he would have to acknowledge that he was wrong.

But make no mistake: Mark Zuckerberg just buried the metaverse. The metaverse is dead.

The metaverse was supposed to be the Next Big Thing for the social-media tycoon, who in 2021 went so far as to rename his empire -- created from Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp -- as Meta Platforms.

Simply put, the metaverse is an immersive virtual world in which we are supposed to interact with each other using specialized glasses and virtual-reality headsets.

It was the future of technology, according to Zuckerberg, whom Tesla CEO Elon Musk dubbed "Zuck the Fourteenth" in an apparent nod to the French king Louis the XIV, famous for his hubris and excess.

...

Zuckerberg has just held the funeral by turning to the next big shiny thing, namely artificial intelligence.

"We're creating a new top-level product group at Meta focused on generative AI to turbocharge our work in this area," Zuckerberg said in a Feb. 27 post on Facebook.

"We're starting by pulling together a lot of the teams working on generative AI across the company into one group focused on building delightful experiences around this technology. ...

"In the short term, we'll focus on building creative and expressive tools," he wrote. "Over the longer term, we'll focus on developing AI personas that can help people in a variety of ways."

The legacy of the metaverse remains because Meta will continue to develop remnants of this virtual world, such as headsets, but it will be more for a target audience, such as videogamers and the crypto world.

Meta will continue to develop remnants of this virtual world, such as headsets, but it will be more for a target audience, such as videogamers and the crypto world.

makes sense for the games - i don't have a VR unit but i think the new gran turismo 7 looks pretty incredible; i think VR games are here to stay.

what is the metaverse use case for crypto, though?

swimming in a virtual money bin a la Uncle Scrooge

it's skins

Fun little read but I don't see much to actually support the headline. No real indication that new "top-level product group" is taking resources from metaverse.

what is the metaverse use case for crypto, though?

nfts originated as part of a virtual world game, so they could try to monetize that approach by running their own roulette crypto table.

yikes: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/oct/20/instagram-palestinian-user-profile-bios-terrorist-added-translation-meta-apology

almost impressed at the baldfacedness of claiming this was a bug

"sometime last night, the core software Instagram runs on became racist"