[smc-discuss] WhatsApp and mental torture in school communities

[Nandakumar Edamana]

On 07/06/20 10:45 am, Vivek K J Pazhedath wrote:
> The schools use whatsapp for not only for sharing time table, they use
> it for sending various study resources like notes, previous year
> question papers, and audio messages that contains the small portion of
> class to students. We can't urge them to use open source messengers
> because they are not familiar with them. So in my opinion we can only
> suggest them for using open source technologies but we can't force them..

Although truly involved in free software, I don't like the idea of
forcing free software since I believe one has the freedom to ditch one's
own freedom too. At the same time, this thing has grown to the point
that everyone is forced to use WhatsApp. That's bad. Especially
considering it is proprietary, and is from a company that has a really
bad reputation.

And sometimes some kind of forcing is needed. What about the Windows vs
GNU/Linux issue in schools? Early high school IT texts had both Windows
and GNU/Linux instructions, chapter by chapter, and the schools were
free to choose their preferred OS. Now the official OS is KITE
GNU/Linux. That is forcing. But nobody can complain because it is libre,
has no commercial intentions or suspicious tie-ups, etc.

Considering your argument "they are not familiar with", that's what our
movement is all about: developing and familiarizing libre solutions.

Will the Govt say "we do not endorse masks and sanitizers because people
aren't used to it"? I can't believe we still don't have a data
protection policy.

-- 
Nandakumar Edamana
https://nandakumar.org

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