From tomorrow (May 15th) new terms of use will apply to Whatsapp. Although we in Europe do not have to agree to the conditions for the time being, this raises the question once again: Why can’t we get rid of WhatsApp?
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In an urgent procedure, the Hamburg data protection officer Johannes Caspar managed to prevent us from having to agree to the new terms of use that will come into force tomorrow. Our Whatsapp data are not initially forwarded to the parent company Facebook and we can use Whatsapp as before. At least in the next three months – by then the EU should have made a decision on how to proceed.
Until then, we have time to think about why we don’t just switch messengers. There are alternatives – and yet most of us find it difficult to say goodbye to WhatsApp. But why actually?
According to Sabine Trepte, professor of media psychology at the University of Hohenheim, the main reason is: We just need our routine, because it is pragmatic and saves us time.
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“We humans are routine people – and why are we that? For a good reason, because routine is more pragmatic. We save time!”
Sabine Trepte, professor for media psychology at the University of Hohenheim
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A change is always associated with a reorientation, effort and costs. A price that we may have to pay if we switch: We lose all the contacts that remain on Whatsapp, she explains.
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No representation of interests of the user community
Most of them find it difficult to change an entire WhatsApp group. This is exactly what Whatsapp aims at, our herd behavior, says Sabine Trepte. Because since most of the people are there, we would imitate the behavior of the others and stay on this platform.
But why exactly are we on Whatsapp? Sabine Trepte doesn’t have a correct answer to that either. She finds it very impressive from a business perspective and very surprising from a psychological perspective. Because we as a large group of users would not exploit our market power at all. We lack a real representation of interests that would take it in hand to shape the product more strongly through demand.
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“I find this impressive from a business perspective and surprising from a psychological perspective, because the users do not exploit their market power at all.”
Sabine Trepte, professor for media psychology at the University of Hohenheim
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Hard cut: “You can find me somewhere else now!”
And what to do if we ourselves have the feeling that we want to break away from WhatsApp and none of the friends goes with us? Sabine Trepte advises all brave people: Simply write in the Whatsapp status and in direct messages in which messenger you can now be found and log out of Whatsapp.
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“Just register with other providers and write in your WhatsApp status where you can be found.”
Sabine Trepte, professor for media psychology at the University of Hohenheim
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For everyone for whom the cut is still too hard: You can log in to a new messenger and move the contacts step by step – in the hope that the others will eventually follow suit.
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