Telegram, Threema or Whatsapp?

In medialand things change constantly, so it may not have come as a surprise that the telegram underwent pretty drastic changes. A telegram used to be an oral message laid down in written format, sent via a post office. It was usually shorter than a tweet and faster yet more expensive than a letter. Now Telegram is back, as the rapidly growing alternative for WhatsApp. 'Mail me' turned into 'text me' turned into 'whatsapp me'. The service grew as big as 465 million users and caught Mark Zuckerberg's roving eye. Facebook acquired WhatsApp for 19 billion dollars. As Whatsapp is a free service which only charges one dollar after the first year of usage, it will take Mr Zuckerberg quite some time to redeem that money - even when they double in size, as Business Insider estimated last February. It makes you wonder what the real reason for the acquisition was. After Whatsapp's take-over, many people seemed fed up with the ever-growing Zuckerberg imperium and its NSA-like tendencies, and started looking for alternatives. My German friends massively flocked to Threema, a messaging service from Switzerland. Jawohl! Reliable, non-US based, so worth the €1,59 fee. Its userbase doubled from 200.000 to 400.000 in the first 24 hours after Whatsapp's take-over and kept growing against the backdrop of NSA schandals and ongoing data protection issues. Bye bye Whatsapp, hallöschen Threema. From my 30 friends currently on Threema, 29 are German. The odd one out is a fellow Dutch geek, who probably just wanted to check out the service. On the other hand, many of my international contacts either still use Whatsapp or have moved to Telegram, which seems to be gaining foothold, especially among younger users. It may not play the same safety cards as Threema, but its functionality is very similar to Whatsapp and, most importantly, it is free of charge. My son tried out several options, but still prefers Whatsapp because 'everyone has it' and at his age this is an important factor as group chats are all the rage. So - Telegram does well in the 15-40 age bracket, the responsible and savvy communicators who don't wish to store their data in US-based clouds. Until they realise that Telegram is owned by Pavel Durov, the Russian millionaire responsible for VKontakte,  the large social network that is popular in many former Soviet countries. This leaves us with a rather classic question: are Russian clouds safer than American ones? Or not that classic: Durov, who lives in the US, was dismissed as CEO last week, coincidentally after refusing Vladimir Putin's demands to hand over information on opposition leaders. However it may be - perhaps those damn reliable Swiss aren't such a bad alternative after all. 

TGIF on Facebook

What do you do on a Friday evening? Visit your friends? Yes - according to research by Buddy Media Friday evening is the time when most people visit their friends, and do a bit of shopping - on Facebook that is. Commercial Facebook use is up by 18% on Friday evening. During normal work hours commercial messages via Twitter and Facebook receive less attention. I wonder why this is news actually - it seems a no-brainer. Especially when your supervisor is one of your virtual 'friends', you should be careful not to use social media during work hours. Big Brother may be watching you, and use it against you. And she would be right to do so as well, at least according to a study by IT research company Nucleus Research, which shows that companies that allow users to access Facebook in the workplace lose an average of 1.5% in total employee productivity. The survey of 237 employees also showed that 77% of workers who have a Facebook account use it during work hours. Interestingly enough some studies show the opposite to be true. A University of Melbourne study shows that as many as 9% workers who indulge in such (Facebook or Twitter) activity have better productivity than those who don’t. The study involved 300 workers and 70% of those engaged in workplace Internet leisure browsing. It’s author, Brent Coker stated: Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days’ work, and as a result, increased productivity. So a bit of couch potato surfing on Facebook is the new smoke break, which is great news for the non-smokers among us.

The Internet is Guilty

I'm a member of many networks, from dedicated networks such as Classroom 2.0 to monsters like LinkedIn. I have a Hyves page (yes, I'm originally Dutch), a Facebook Account, and Twitter. I have several blogs, three of which are completely neglected. I love to read, but when? All we have time for nowadays is a quick scan through the latest news. Not by reading papers, but newsletters and blogs. My friend R. calls it grazing. I also have a job. And a family. It's way past midnight and I managed to update one of my networks, not by communicating with others but by updating my bio. I've been on LinkedIn for years but have never done a thing with it. Now I found many old friends and colleagues, from Hilversum and London to Atlanta... if they join my network, I'll have even more people I know I will neglect. Is this the time when everyone feels guilty about not having enough time to do all the things you want to do and know you could do, but never will be able to include in your schedule? Are we never making the most of the Internet, and does it slowly dawn on you that you will never be able to - that we're not kitted out for it? Not have two brains, four hands, 48 hours in a day? I guess my contacts (there was a time when I simply called them friends...) will just have to wait until I am a Silver Surfer, sitting on my retired behind on a lovely beach with wLan - yes, of course the whole world will be wireless by then, it'll be as common as using the sidewalk, like Prof Dueck from IBM likes to reflect. So, in about 25 years I'll be bombarding my friends with emails and entries, updates on my wonderfully quiet and peaceful life, about the latest novel I read, or the tweets my grandchildren sent me. See you then!