Dear reader,
Leaving WhatsApp has been the most demanding privacy-related change I have ever made. It took years of preparation: moving conversations to Signal, and waiting until I graduated from university, so I didn’t have to bother with group assignments that got organized through WhatsApp. Last year, I was finally ready to leave and so I did. While I had to make compromises during those eight months without WhatsApp, they weren’t deal-breakers.
Things changed last month when I returned to the dark side. Before discussing that, let’s go back in time to the final days before the deadline I had set up for my exit.
Self-doubt and coming to terms with the change
The feelings of intimidation and doubt were on top of my mind. Am I making a mistake? Will people think I'm doing this for attention? Can I leave these groups since that means leaving people behind for good? How would people contact me since I'm not on social media, and many are not aware of this side of my life?
On the other hand, people I truly care about are on my contact list. Even if a person has been in my life, it doesn’t mean that the relationship will last forever. If I haven’t talked to a person in years, is it a relationship anymore? We should accept this as part of life: people will move in different directions, and relationships that once were meaningful are now only memories.
About those eight months
When I had gotten used to this change, things floated smoothly most of the time. There were times when I had to reconnect with people on Signal or iMessage, and once I had to turn down a WhatsApp group invite for one of those groups with little purpose.
Being outside a family-related group meant that people had to inform me of updates. While this was annoying (probably for both parties), I accepted the situation as I considered it a minor issue when compared to using WhatsApp.
However, I didn’t anticipate coming back to WhatsApp this soon.
Moving back
While my repulsion towards WhatsApp remains, there is a WhatsApp group related to my hobby, which added significant value to me. I had to choose between continuing with Signal and suffering the consequences, or making a limited return to WhatsApp. I went with the latter. It’s a big group, and as a new member, I felt it wasn’t my place to advocate for switching platforms.
I see my decision to return as a lesson on structural obstacles people can face when challenging deeply rooted societal structures. Since WhatsApp dominates in my country, leaving it feels like a choice you cannot make. Since the change relies on others, it is one of the most ambitious things one can achieve on their privacy journey, but I’m not sure if leaving the platform has as significant privacy benefits as I had thought.
Signal has superior privacy, but if you limit your WhatsApp use for non-sensitive communication, such as hobbies (assuming you don’t have crazy hobbies), you might find the compromise worth accepting. It’s vital to remember that privacy isn’t a matter of black and white. Even WhatsApp isn’t all bad, as it supports end-to-end encryption by default, unlike many of its competitors. As much as I would love to communicate with people only via Signal or other privacy-focused messaging apps, our society isn’t there yet. Maybe one day. 🌔