Not everyone can afford a smartphone.

[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.

[vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de]

@ajroach42 @mlanger @anon_opin @dbsalk

thing is you still put in the effort, and have a physical presence which shows your businesses are definitely active - I can see that all the way from England!

Many businesses round here don't even do that, if you try and telephone them often no one answers, in some cases you could physically visit them but its not always feasible or worth the effort if they are some distance away...

[stacky@hulvr.com]

@anon_opin @dbsalk it’s also past time to regulate them as a utility!!!

[only_ohm@mas.to]

@vfrmedia @mlanger @anon_opin @dbsalk

Funnily enough, both the automotive repair businesses that existed in my youth in the village where I live have gone down the "shut down and sell off the land for housing" route - in at least one case, with the local council being decidedly displeased about it.

[zenia@mas.to]

@ben @anon_opin @drahardja but I agree

[zenia@mas.to]

@Tekchip @Rastal @anon_opin 100%

[only_ohm@mas.to]

@vfrmedia @mlanger @anon_opin @dbsalk

(and yes, both of those shops were always busy and in high demand)

[leeloo@chaosfem.tw]

@anon_opin
And the selection of smartphones is pretty small if you consider Android and Windows spyware and Apple fascist supporters.

[jane_jordan@dragonscave.space]

@anon_opin Also, quit making it hard to reach a human when you have to call a company, "I want to speak to a human" should take you directly to a human. You should not have to say "I want to speak to a pharmacist" or anything like that. Ugh.

[vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de]

@only_ohm @mlanger @anon_opin @dbsalk

A lot of automotive business owners end up burning out because their businesses are run so lean they don't have the money to invest in training or new equipment, and the "fun" jobs like performance, tuning and full restos of oldtimers you might see on YouTube are in reality rarer these days as many people with more cash get their cars on leases which forbid such mods, and the rest of the work is keeping peoples old sheds running which can often be thankless as few people are happy paying a garage bill..