At the New Year’s Eve concert I am playing music with someone who I would like to contact later and exchange contact details. I ask him if I could quickly scan him as a WhatsApp contact and he says: “I don’t use WhatsApp. But you’re welcome to Threema!”
I scan his Threema contact details and can now reach him via Threema. So far, a not entirely dissimilar experience to the one in 2019. Because Threema takes privacy so seriously, I don’t get his phone number when I scan my contact details. He briefly asks me to write him a Threema message so that he can also save me among his Threema contacts.
I’m writing this down because these topics “Which messengers do I want to be reachable on?” And how? And on which social media channels? And how do you exchange contact details?” really and still busy. So I’ll add a few more random and subjective data points here:
My older son mainly uses WhatsApp and Threema with his friends and family. In the extended circle of friends there is also Discord, probably also for voice connections (i.e. something that used to be called “telephoning”). Also Instagram and – probably less recently – X/Twitter. He registered with Threads and Bluesky “just to take a look.” He doesn’t want Mastodon. The younger son mainly uses WhatsApp and Skype. The latter also applies to voice connections with friends: especially in groups when playing Minecraft together. The way it works is that everyone sits at home and plays a game together on a Minecraft server and is in contact with each other via Skype voice connection, some via headset on the computer, some via the Skype app on their cell phone . He is not registered on Instagram or similar. Well, at least I don’t know about it 😬I recently noticed that in Lawrence’s music video for her song “I’m confident that I’m insecure” in the excellent “acoustic-ish” version on YouTube, the @Instagram usernames are used Musicians are indicated during the mini solos (from approx. 3’25”). Of course, without specifying whether they are X/Twitter, Instagram or other @ handles. They also show the musicians’ Instagram handles in the “acoustic-ish” version of their song “23” from November.
(Molinarius)