I'm one of those edge cases who uses Messenger.com a lot.
My facebook account is deactivated but I can keep on messaging. But... facebook.com/messages requires you to log in to your facebook account (which reactivates it).
So Mobile app would be my only option. Right now a lot of family members use Messenger, so it's not trivial to move away entirely.
You may try Beeper app - it finaly has got the "secure mode" with on-device accounts. So, you can login to messenger from your phone (thanks to EU Digital Markets Acts), and your phone will relay it up encrypted to the beeper's matrix server.
On your desktop you can just connect with any matrix client (or beeper electron app) and effectively use your phone as a proxy to Messenger/WhatsApp/etc.
Only downside is missing audio/video calling (should be enforced in 2028).
Thanks for your comment, I assumed that Beeper uses the DMA API [1], but I couldn't find if they really do, or they are just faking requests "like from official app". It seems the latter is true since it shows my chat history and DMA does not include that.
> But... facebook.com/messages requires you to log in to your facebook account (which reactivates it).
“…and you can see our facebook sign-ups during this past quarter were significant, showing how people are just clamoring for our AI offerings. With your investment, we can keep this going.”
My account is deactivated in the sense that I have neither chosen to accept tracking or pay the monthly fee to use Facebook that us EU users had to chose between in that evil modal dialog. I instead stopped using Facebook.
So my account is in a strange limbo where Messenger still works, but I can't use Facebook itself without choosing one of the two evils. So this will definitely be the final nail in the coffin for my Facebook account.
The only question is, how will I request takeout of my data when I can't do anything in the app before answering in that modal, and also, how do I delete my account? I do NOT want to click accept to the tracking, and I refuse to pay for an app haven't even used for several years now.
I'm a computer user. When I'm on a computer for work, or for fun, I prefer to be on my computer, and not stop and reach for a phone. I often have my phone in another room entirely. (On my main gaming PC, I use phone link to get texts on my computer as well!)
I also vastly prefer typing to the horrible swiping keyboard my phone uses. So for communicating via text, a computer is a much nicer solution, in my opinion.
This isn't a (totally) bad question, but it suffers from problem common to a lot of internet forum posts and comments. It lumps "people" into one shiny bucket, and then shouts at the bucket.
Over 16 million new cars were purchased in 2025 in the United States.
Meanwhile, there are about 242 million licensed drivers in that same country.
So that's than 7% of drivers buying a new car in a year's time.
But what is the point of your question, in response to a new car announcements? That new cars should not exist... ? You do realize how much harder that would eventually make it to buy a used one, right?
So yeah, sure. "People" would be well-advised to consider buying a 2-3 year old vehicle that has depreciated. Let someone else carry that depreciation cost. (But "someone" has to.)
(My used EV depreciated 57% before I bought it, 2 years old with 20,000 miles on it. It's a great way to go!)
Given that I.C.E. has been allowed to stop people just for not looking white enough, and even white citizens have been shot for being "near" I.C.E. operations, I would suggest that it is not safe to assume someone is not a citizen, just because I.C.E. makes them feel unsafe in their neighborhood.
Agreed. You are not alone, all of us see what's going on, and it only takes a few bad actors that are highly motivated to cause the craziness you see on display here.
Regular, normal people are still in the majority, we just need to acknowledge each other and not let the propagandists flood the zone.
I will remove that accusation in the interests of not distracting from my main point. I don't know you and the particulars of your situation and apologize for an unsupported insinuation.
With your example of a $350K home, someone making the median (presumably not 20-30 year olds but more like 40-45 year olds...) they could save up the $70k down payment in under 2 years.
P & I payment of ~$2k / month. Maybe $1k more for escrow of taxes and insurance.
So $72k total cost of living on $87k, assuming you've made it to median income.
Of course, if you're making less than $72k, buying a $350k house would simply be... untenable.
Also, based on rough guideline of "30% of income on housing", you'd definitely want to keep your mortgage under $2200 / month.
Census link indicates median home values are closer to $404K though, too.
When you say housing, are you excluding utilities or just not direct rent / mortgage / property taxes?
Either way, that's a good example of how different things are without kids and maybe why folks are choosing not to have them.
As someone without kids who lives in NY (not NYC), I couldn't even imagine spending 36k / year (minus rent). Even if I took a 3 week international vacation every quarter I wouldn't come close to that amount after factoring in my normal costs.
From the link I posted, a "family of 4" in R.I. has a cost-of-living of $3090 / month (without rent.) It then line items "rent & utilities" as $2644 / month.
But it's objective!! You can objectively measure the value of people. We could just plug people's value into a database and let AI do the match-making. People don't have to be involved in the decision-making. Especially not female people!
I've never used an iPhone and I've had an issue with 2FA / MFA. Mostly I use Microsoft Authenticator (even if, like Kleenex, sites will say "Use Google Authenticator.)
Can you name specific MFA experiences that don't work on Android?
My facebook account is deactivated but I can keep on messaging. But... facebook.com/messages requires you to log in to your facebook account (which reactivates it).
So Mobile app would be my only option. Right now a lot of family members use Messenger, so it's not trivial to move away entirely.
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