Not everyone can afford a smartphone.

[http_error_418@hachyderm.io]

@CppGuy @anon_opin 100%. If your service is online, it should be possible to conduct through a website with an app as an *option*. And if the website is harder to use then you are Doing It Wrong.

[ariaflame@masto.ai]

@anon_opin For me it's when Facebook is their only access point.

[tekchip@mastodon.social]

@anon_opin the smartphones are cheap argument doesn't negate "computers".

https://www.walmart.com/ip/13333803592?sid=800631c8-5ff8-4bdc-bca2-b8d76a1d6261&conditionGroupCode=3

But also smart phones are computers. They just have a different primary input. Yes, their original design was consumption focused, but that hasn't been the case for a while now unless you let it be. See attached. Lots gets created on phones you just wouldn't know.

That said the web is the most portable format, when designed with even the smallest consideration, scales pretty well to all devices.

[mirabilos@toot.mirbsd.org]

@dalias @zenia @anon_opin but garbage Androids are much less secure than dumbphones…

[shadowfals@mastodon.otherworldsink.com]

@danamcfarland a what?

[ben@s.djehuti.com]

@zenia @anon_opin There should be options that don't involve computers.
@drahardja

[duckwhistle@mastodon.org.uk]

@anon_opin
too late for that. Better everyone stop shamming poorer people who own smartphones for frivolous spending, when they are now essential for modern living.

[dbsalk@mastodon.social]

@ariaflame @anon_opin This doesn't get talked about enough. Any conversation about the evils of Google and Apple should also include Facebook. Facebook doesn't make a phone, so it gets treated differently even though its business practices are just as sketchy, if not worse.

[_daisy@mstdn.ca]

@anon_opin There are those who cannot (or will not if you insist) learn how to use one too. Also - those "services" are only available for the two major OS's. Free coercion for apple and google.

[mlanger@mastodon.world]

@anon_opin @dbsalk Ditto for Facebook. If Facebook is the only way you communicate with customers, you won't be communicating with me because I won't be a customer.

[frieke72@mastodon.social]

@CppGuy this!
E.g. Mother in law is internet savvy but due to shaking rheumatoid hands she has the hardest time operating a phone. She told she needed an hour of repeated tries to take a pic of her ID for banking purpose 😑
@anon_opin

[mikal@sfba.social]

@CppGuy @anon_opin

I know elderly people who are not phone savvy who should definitely not have smart phones, especially not attached to anything like banking. I have elderly family members who would be excluded from eating at a lot of restaurants these days because the only way to pay and order is by scanning a QR code. On principle, I walk out of these places and tell them why.

Anytime participating in the basic functions of life and society requires a smart phone, it creates an exclusionary system. (Note I said exclusionary and not discriminatory because the last time I said "discriminate" some pedant who probably works for a surveillance company took umbrage.)

[vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de]

@mlanger @anon_opin @dbsalk

one of the saddest things I see is when small businesses neglect their independent website for Facebook, and then don't even bother to update the bit of FB that you can see without having a login, to the point you don't even know if the business is still operating as their last post is 3 years ago!

I think the wider problem is a lot of business owners don't really *want* to communicate with their customers (and then wonder why they go bust within a few years)

[mlanger@mastodon.world]

@vfrmedia @anon_opin @dbsalk I think you're right, at least on some level. But I also truly believe that small business owners think all they need to do to build a business is put themselves on a site like Facebook and sit back and wait for the customers to come. Same goes for Instagram and Twitter and anything else. They don't seem to care that these platforms do not give them exposure to ALL potential customers.

[ferrix@mastodon.online]

@CppGuy @anon_opin @wendynather the same people who don't get this also think poor people are making "bad decisions" for spending money on a smartphone while poor.

[vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de]

@mlanger @anon_opin @dbsalk

I deleted my FB, Messenger and Instagram accounts some months ago - one thing I noticed when I was using them is Messenger is *not* reliable for the level of real-time messaging you would need for a business transaction (even compared to SIgnal, SMS or a telephone call).

And FB will equally direct people to their competitors, and in a small country like England has 0 sense of geography/distance (this is a very common flaw with all USA developed social networks)

[only_ohm@mas.to]

@vfrmedia @mlanger @anon_opin @dbsalk

One further level of abstraction: a lot of business owners want to close down their business and sell off the land on which it's situated for housing (frequently much more lucrative than running a business could ever be); but they can't get planning permission unless they can convince the local council that they've really tried to operate the business and it hasn't worked out: going bust within a few years is exactly their intended outcome.

[only_ohm@mas.to]

@mlanger @anon_opin @dbsalk

A great approach until it's a company that has a monopoly on something essential. I moved house in 2022, and the water company in the area I moved away from would accept the notification that I was leaving *only* via WhatsApp,

[vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de]

@only_ohm @mlanger @anon_opin @dbsalk

I think in many cases (particularly in my part of England) its landlords who would be doing this, hence renting out a location to a risky enterprise wihch is likely to fail? Or in other cases the business owners are old and going to retire anyway, so they don't have that much trouble showing the Council they *were* running the business.

OTOH I see the same thing happen in sectors like automotive where there is high demand and many businesses seem to be constantly busy (or at least give the impression of being so by being hard to contact by normal means, although this is often because they don't hire admin staff any more and the same mechanics doing the work have to field the customer communications)

[ajroach42@retro.social]

@vfrmedia @mlanger @anon_opin @dbsalk as a business owner (with websites) I tend to try to spend more time running my business than dealing with either social media or my website.

Both are huge burdens that are neccisary to doing business while actively taking time away from the business in which I am trying to engage.

And i say that as someone who is good at these things.