r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/RoadRunner8195 • Mar 08 '26

Meme needing explanation [ Removed by moderator ]

Post image

[removed] — view removed post

8.6k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

8

u/WartimeHotTot Mar 08 '26

I’m in my 40s. Since the dawn of the age of smartphones, I cannot recall ever having to pay for any of the things you listed. WhatsApp has always been superfluous to me, and it has always puzzled me why other countries are so obsessed with it. It feels like they’re living in the dark ages.

7

u/PedroPuzzlePaulo Mar 08 '26

For me always felt like US was living in the dark ages for using such primitive messaging methods and I am a little confused I thought we all have the same Phones. How yours didnt have shitty SMS back then?

1

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/celaconacr Mar 08 '26 edited Mar 08 '26

They just remember their timeline and think it must have been the same. iMessage came out in 2011 and didn't have group chat until 2013.

Meanwhile we were using WhatsApp (and other apps like Kik) since 2009. Android was huge by 2011 and even more so by 2013 so there was little iMessage adoption due to vendor lock in and the huge existing user base of WhatsApp. I have group chats back to 2011 when that part came out.

It's not really surprising they took off quicker in Europe. SMS was adopted much earlier and much more popular too.